Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved projects valued at N62.047 billion for various contract proposals presented by the ministries of Works and Housing, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as well as Water Resources.
The week’s virtual FEC meeting was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chambers of the State House in Abuja.
The Council, like the Senate, observed a minute silence in honour of former Lagos State Governor Lateef Jakande, who was also the Housing Minister between 1993 and 1995.
Addressing State House correspondents after the meeting, Ministers Babatunde Fashola (Works and Housing), Mohammed Bello (FCT) and Suleiman Adamu (Water Resources) gave details of the approvals and the figures attached to them.
Babatunde Fashola said the four memoranda his ministry presented to FEC were approved, starting with the Benin-Ore-Ajebamdele road project, particularly the section from Ajebamdele (Ondo State) to Sagamu (Ogun State).
“The redesigning of the shoulders and pavement provision necessitated a revised estimated total cost of N22.879 billion to take the contract from the original sum of N71.6 billion to N92.5 billion. The stretch involved is 99 kilometres, from kilometre 162 to 261.
“Council approved that review of total estimated cost in favour of Messers RCC Construction firm currently working there,” he said.
The minister said Council also approved the contract for the Akwanga-Keffi-Makurdi highway executed under the China-EXIM loan by China Habour Engineering Construction Company (CHECC) for N46.25 billion
He said the manual signing of certificate of occupancy was moving towards automation so that “all of these processes can be initiated online, processed online, approved and printed in a digital form”.
Also Speaking, FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello said his ministry presented five memoranda, all of which were approved, including the review of the N19.5 billion Southern Parkway project.
Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu also said his ministry presented two contracts, which were also approved.
“The first one is the Fika-Gadaka Water Project in Yobe State. This project, which started in 2003, was abandoned in 2007 at 30 per cent completion. We sought Council’s approval to revive the project. Therefore, we had to revise the cost of the project and change the scope of work to include things like solar power instead of the diesel generator provided for it in 2003 when diesel was quite cheap.
“We have taken a policy in the ministry that going forward, we will be using solar system to power water schemes and accordingly, this was done in the case of this project plus an extension of the pipeline to cover more areas.
“Because between 2003 and now, obviously the two towns would have expanded. So, this revised estimated total cost is N555.15 million in favour of existing contractors.