FEC Approves N809.7bn for Road Projects, Others

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its weekly virtual meeting on Wednesday approved N809.7 billion for some road projects across the country; procurement of fire fighting vehicles as well as the development of an application for design, development, deployment, and management of the National Social Investment Management System for the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP). The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, told journalists at the end of the 36th FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari that the council approved the change of scope for the construction of the 375 kilometre Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway, saying the road is still undergoing renovation, and would now be completely reconstructed, thus increasing the cost of the project from N155 billion to N797.2 billion. According to him, “I presented on behalf of the Ministry of Works and Housing, one memorandum and one report. The memo was with respect to the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano highway, which was to change the scope of works from rehabilitation previously awarded because many parts of the pavement had deteriorated, to full reconstructed two lanes on both sides. “The council considered and approved the request for that change of scope and the incidental cost consequence, changing the existing contract for N155 billion to N797.236 billion to provide for the full reconstruction of the main carriage way, trailer parks, way bridges, toll stations and additional side lanes in the built-up areas across the FCT, Niger Kaduna and Kano States, which are all served by the road, and this was approved by the council for the same contractor.” The minister listed the federal roads already rehabilitated, which would soon be handed over to the government, to include Benin-Asaba, Abuja-Lokoja, Kano-Katsina, Onitsha-Aba, Sagamu-Benin, Kano-Maiduguri, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Ilorin-Jebba and Lagos-Badagary roads. On the particular time, the road will be delivered, Fashola said: “The completion is going to be in phases so the first phase will be the Kaduna-Zaria section, which is 74 kilometres, to be ready in quarter four of 2022; the next phase the Zaria-Kano section, which is 137 km, to be ready in quarter one of 2023, and the last phase will be the Abuja-Kaduna section which should be in quarter two of 2023.” FEC also approved the sum of N10.4 billion for the procurement of 44 fire fighting vehicles and equipment for the Federal Fire Service. Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, told journalists that: “The council considered and approved the procurement of various firefighting equipment. The total sum of the approval is N10, 436, 375, 340.96. The breakdown is as follows: The approval covers the supply of 44 firefighting engines; it also covers the supply of 15 water tankers; 15 rapid intervention fire engines, not conventional ones, which can go into every nook and cranny to respond to distressed calls. “The approval also covers the supply of 20 basic life support ambulances. So, in all, we are talking about 79 firefighting equipment and support vehicles.” Aregbesola said the procurement of the vehicles would enhance the capacity of the Federal Fire Service to effectively control and manage emergencies relating to fire. He also appealed to state governments to also equip their own fire services, so as to compliment the work of the Federal Fire Service operating in their states. He also announced that the ministry got an approval of N353.2 million for the deployment of an integrated real-time data repository equipment for the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) headquarters in Abuja. “The council also considered and approved the award of contract for the deployment of an integrated real-time data repository and security intelligence solution to the NIS headquarters in Abuja and the delivery period for that contract is four months at the sum of N353, 219, 200,” he said. He explained that the aim is to have the data bases of the immigration service on one platform, for effective management of such data.