The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) says that the government must remain focused on dealing with the challenges around food movement from farms to the cities.

The Director-General of LCCI , Dr Chinyere Almona, made the call citing the recent spate of herdsmen-farmers clashes in the middle belt and floods which the LCCI believes are negative signals capable of limiting food harvest this year.

Almona called on the government to urgently scale up support for dry season farming, irrigation infrastructure and mechanisation to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on rainy season food production.

She said that addressing inefficiencies in transporting goods, particularly food, from rural to urban markets can help lower market prices and reduce post-harvest losses.

The DG added that government’s spending must prioritise critical sectors with high inflation pass-through such as food, energy and transport, while eliminating leakages and enhancing social safety nets for vulnerable households.

Kogi State Government workers and stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress have endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s second-term bid and Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo’s re-election project.

Speaking at a press conference in Lokoja, Hon. Bode Adeyemi, Chairman of the Combined State Government Appointees Forum, said the endorsement was necessary given the exceptional performance of the President in the last two years.

According to Adeyemi, “The current presidency has drawn Nigeria out of the negative economic, security, infrastructure, education, and healthcare rating and stabilised the system into one that is forward-looking and promising.”

He added that the policy direction of the government has brought Nigeria back from the woods and put it on the path of unstoppable progress towards shared prosperity for all Nigerians.

The Kogi officials praised Tinubu for his achievements, including the removal of subsidies on petroleum products, allocation of huge resources to sub-national governments, and various infrastructure development projects.

They also commended Governor Ododo’s humane and egalitarian leadership, which has turned around the well-being of the people and made Kogi one of the fastest-growing states.

The appointees vowed to use their numbers, strategic positions, and political weight to “deliver 239,000 votes to President Tinubu and all the 2027 candidates of the party in the state”.

They announced the creation of the “Kogi Continuity Mandate” as the political organisation under which they will mobilise electorates for the actualisation of the Tinubu-Ododo continuity mandate.

Governor Ododo was adopted as the Grand Patron of the new organisation, while the Deputy Governor, Joel Salifu, was named Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

The group also constituted various committees, including a political committee, pet projects committee, and media committee, to drive their mobilisation efforts.

The combined forum of appointees, comprising the Forum of Commissioners, Forum of Special Advisers, Forum of Senior Special Assistants, Forum of Local Government Special Assistants, and Forum of Ward Special Assistants, made a formal endorsement and declaration of support for President Tinubu and Governor Ododo’s continuity in office.

They pledged to “mobilise 239,000 traceable votes for the party in 2027”.

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) says it will forge a strategic partnership with the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) to ensure compliance of pension remittance by managers of media organisations in Nigeria.

Director General of the National Pension Commission, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, made the disclosure in Abuja when she led her management team on a courtesy visit to the President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Malam Kabiru Yusuf, on Monday.

She said the purpose of the visit was to seek support for the compliance within the media sector to conform to the Pension Reform Act of 2014, which mandates that all employers must remit pension contributions for their employers on a monthly basis within seven days.

Accordingly, the DG highlighted that the mandate of PenCom is to enforce and ensure full compliance with the Act and as part of the drive for compliance, the commission has been having several meetings with employers across the country, while noting that many media houses are not remitting pension for their staff as employers currently owe over N700 million in pension remittance.

“A couple of weeks ago, we met with the Press Council as well to help us in this drive to ensure compliance with the Pension Reform Act.

What we do in PenCom is we try to engage employers and get all employers to be compliant with the Act by ensuring that everyone is contributing towards the financial security of their staff.

So, we are the watchdogs to enforce that. Unfortunately, it’s been a tall task particularly within the media sector.

“The findings are very troubling because based on the investigations we’ve done, the media houses are owing pension contributions to the tune of N720million.

That’s a whole lot. “It seems to me like a number of them don’t even bother to pay at all. And it’s striking because we hold the media in high esteem in society.

And like I said, the media helps to shape national discourse and we hope and assume that at least they will be leading in the case of contributing pensions for their workers,” she added.

She, however, commended Media Trust Group for being the sole media outfit that has been compliant with remitting staff pension into their Retirement Savings Account (RSA).

“I must first of all commend the Media Trust Group because they have essentially been leading by example in this area. You’ve been compliant since 2015.

She reiterated that the purpose of the visit was not focused on being punitive but to seek NPAN’s collaboration towards financial security of workers

In his response, the President of NPAN who also doubles as the Chairman Board of Directors of Media Trust Group, Malam Kabiru Yusuf, noted that newspaper houses are struggling to survive as many cannot pay salaries, let alone remit pension.

“The industry is in deep trouble. Maybe that is partly why this compliance is not happening. I do know for a fact that many newspapers cannot even pay their obligation to their staff,” he noted.T

o address the situation, He said “We have a super group called the Nigerian Press Organisation which is made up of the NPAN, the Nigerian Guild of Editors and the Nigerian Union of Journalists.

We work together sometimes. So, it is important to arrange a meeting with all these associations and chart a way forward,” he explained.

He proposed that the meeting be slated in August or September to interface with PenCom to find a lasting solution to pension remittance in the media industry.