The Ministry of Works and Housing has got approval from FEC to award a 15 billion Naira contract for the construction of an access road from the existing Benin-Asaba highway to join the link road in Delta State to the 2nd Niger Bridge.
Standing in for the Ministry, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the project was preparatory to the commissioning of the bridge before the expiration of the administration.
FEC equally gave nod to the Ministry to revise the estimated total cost of the contract for the dualisation of Suleja-Minna road, phase one, in Niger State.
He said although the contract was nearing completion, it was later realised that the road needed to be strengthened to bear the frequency of Petroleum tankers lifting fuel from the depot in Suleja.
The Minister said the contract, which originally stood at 9 billion Naira, would be augmented with 16 billion Naira, bringing the new cost to 25 billion Naira.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed also said FEC approved a memorandum of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources recommending the 7-year renewal of consultancy services for the ministry to save foreign exchange on some official engagements, such as the Nigeria International Energy Summit.
The Ministry of Water Resources got FEC’s approval to award a contract for the construction of Jato dam, in Esako-west Local Government in Edo State to provide potable water and for all-year-round farming.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed explained that the Edo State Government had undertaken to under-write 25 percent of the 8 million Naira contract sum, which translates to 2 billion Naira.
The National Population Commission also got approval to spend 2.8 billion Naira on the procurement of the series of software it require to conduct the forthcoming census successfully in May, this year.
Similarly, FEC approved variations on the contract sums for the completion of the 33kva sub-stations in Nnewi and a line-bay extention at Onitsha sub-stations.
Briefing State House correspondents on the approval, the Minister of Power, Alhaji Abubakar Aliyu, said the variations, which stood at 3.7 million Euros and over one billion Naira, would escalate the total sum to over 5 million Euros and about 9 billion Naira.
He explained that the projects, to be completed in 18 months, were mooted in 2006, but that they suffered budgetary allocations until now that the Transmission Company of Nigeria had priotised their completion.
Also, the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Clem Agba, said FEC also approved Nigeria Agenda 2050 to keep the country on steady path for development.
He said the 2050 Agenda, which was an improvement on previous agenda, was bench-marked amongst upper middle-income countries that had achieved some level of socio-economic developments, which Nigeria was craving for.
“The 2050 Agusta highlists the roadmap for accelerated, sustained, and broad-based growth, and also provides broad frameworks and approaches for reducing unemployment, poverty, inequality, and human deprivation.
“The broad objectives are to create a stable and predictable macro-economic environment by adopting policies that are consistent with raising domestic savings and investment”, he said.
The Minister said the agenda was aimed at establishing a solid foundation for a concentric, diversified private sector-led economy to create and support opportunities for Nigerians to realise their potential.
“It will propel us to invest in critical fiscal, financial, digital, and innovation infrastructure. It will help us to build a solid framework, and highten capacities to strengthen security and ensure good governance. It will enable a vibrant, educated, and healthy population, effectively address demographic issues to make Nigeria become an economic hub in Africa, and effectively play a leading role in various regional agreements”, the Minister stated.
He said the development of the Agenda got inputs from state governments and the PDP, APC, and APGA, at the National Assembly level.
Bello Wakili