FEC approves N15.57bn for roads, university infrastructure

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved a total amount of N15.57bn for various contracts in the ministries of Works and Housing, Education and Industry, Trade and Investment.

The Minister of Public Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, along with his counterparts in the Ministries of Education, Adamu Adamu, and Industry, Niyi Adebayo, disclosed this to State House correspondents after this week’s Council meeting, which was presided over by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret.), at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

Fashola, whose ministry received N9.69bn, said the Council approved the amount for the repayment of money spent on federal roads by the Plateau and Borno governments.

According to the former governor of Lagos State, the roads in question were built before July 2016, when the federal government stopped such interventions.

He said: “We have presented two policy papers. The first was with respect to the government’s policy of making restitution in any form to state governments for past interventions on federal government roads, subject to the July 26, 2016 limit, after which reforms would no longer be eligible.

So the two states that had outstanding amounts in respect of eligible roads were Plateau and Borno states and the Council approved the repayment of N6.60bn in favor of Plateau State, and the sum of N3.08bn for Borno State. ”

He also revealed that his ministry had received Council approval to enlist the services of a private sector operator, who would work with the federal government to build a central clearinghouse for the operations of concessionaires of toll plazas under a Build-Operate-Transfer model of the Public-Private Partnership.

The private operator will finance the project, operate it, recover its investment and eventually transfer it back to the government, he explained.

According to him, “Two weeks ago, we also approved the full business case for the concession of nine federal highways, which includes completion of those roads by the concessionaires as well as toll operations, ambulance services, vehicle recovery services, and so on.

“This process that we sought and received approval to start is to get a private sector operator to work with us to build, operate, restore and ultimately return a central clearinghouse at our own expense. contribute to the government.

“What a central clearing house will do is it will synchronize the interoperability between different toll systems that will be used by different concessionaires when they start their toll collections, and will also provide a one-stop accounting system and a single payment recovery system where everyone will be paid at the end of operations, and also provide visibility for the government to see what is going on in each concessionaire’s operations.

In his briefing, Industry, Trade and Investment Minister Niyi Adebayo said that the Council approved a $1.80 billion contract to construct a parcel sewage system for the authority’s headquarters in the Liberty Free Zone in Akwa Ibom State. .

“My ministry released a memo on behalf of the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority, which is part of our ministry, as part of its responsibility for regulating and attracting foreign direct investment into the country, oversees certain oil and gas free zones in the country and one of them is the Liberty Free Zone in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State.

“To this end, they sought Council approval for the award of a contract to construct a parcel sewage system for the government headquarters in the Liberty Free Zone in Akwa Ibom State at a cost of N1.8 billion including 7.5 percent VAT, with a completion period of 10 months, with no variation and the Council graciously approved the award of the contract,” he said.

For his part, Education Minister Adamu Adamu revealed that the Council approved a total amount of N4.08bn for three contracts in Osun State University, Osogbo; the Federal University, Lokoja, and the National Commission for Nomadic Education.

He also revealed that the Council has approved a memorandum to take over the federal government from David Umahi University of Medical Sciences, Ebonyi and rename it to David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences.

Adamu explained: “We presented four memos, three of which were contracts. The first is for the construction of the Senate Building at Osun State University in Osogbo. This will cost N2.13bn, with a completion period of 76 weeks and the contractor is WAZLAF Engineering Limited.

“The second is another Senate building. This is located at Federal University, Lokoja and costs N1.61bn, with a completion period of 50 weeks and the contractor for the project is Amber Bliss Nigeria Limited.

“The third is a contract to install a radio antenna for the National Commission for Nomadic Education. It is 50 kilowatt AM radio and the contractor is ECALPEMOS Technologies Limited and the contract sum is N336.75m. The lead time is 14 weeks.

“The latter is a memo for the federal government’s acquisition of David Umahi University of Medical Sciences, Ebonyi.

“What we put in the memo is that the Council ratify the agreement made between the Ebonyi State Government and the Federal Government and then approve the renaming of the university from David Umahi University of Medical Sciences to David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences and to pass a bill, which has been written, and then to approve the transfer of this bill to the National Assembly for conversion into a law.”