FEC Signs N809.7b for Abuja-Kano Road, 44 FireFighting Vehicles, Others

The Federal Executive Council (FEC), presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday approved over N809.7 billion for roads and other projects across the country.

Addressing State House Correspondents after the week’s virtual FEC meeting at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja, Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola (SAN) said Council approved the change of scope for the construction of Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway.

The minister said the road, which was hitherto undergoing repairs, would now be rebuilt, thus changing the cost of the project form N155 billion to N797.2 billion.

He listed the rehabilitated roads, which would soon be handed over, to include Benin-Asaba, Abuja-Lokoja, Kano-Katsina, Onitsha-Aba, Sagamu-Benin, Kano-Maiduguri, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Ilorin-Jebba and Lagos-Badagary.

Asked about the exact time the road will be delivered, Fashola said: “We are dealing with 375 kilometres of roads. So, the completion is going to be in phases. The first phase will be the Kaduna-Zaria section, which is 74 kilometres, that will be in Quarter Four (Q4) of 2022.

“The Phase B, the Zaria-Kano section, which is 137 kilometres, should be in Quarter One (Q1) of 2023. And the last phase will be the Abuja-Kaduna section, which should be in Quarter Two (Q2) of 2023.”

Council also approved N10.4 billion for the procurement of fire-fighting vehicles and equipment for the Federal Fire Service (FFS).

Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola said: “The Council considered and approved the procurement of various fire-fighting equipment. The total sum of the approval is N10,436,375,340.96.

“The breakdown of the figure is as follows: the approval covers the supply of 44 fire-fighting engines; the supply of 15 water tankers; 15 rapid intervention fire engines that can go into any 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 FFS to effectively control and manage fire emergencies.

He urged state governments to equip their fire services to complement the efforts of the FFS in their states.

The minister announced that the ministry got approval for N353,219,200 for the deployment of an integrated real-time data repository equipment for the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) headquarters in Abuja.

He explained that the aim was to ensure that the NIS has its data bases on one platform for effective management of such data.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk, said Council approved the award of contract for the design, development, deployment, and management of National Social Investment Management System (NSIMS) for the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).

“This system is going to be used to take care of the issues of N-Power Programme, N-SIP Programme, National Cash Transfer Programme, as well as National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.

“We are starting with N-Power, which is the one before us. It is very immediate. Afterwards, we will key other clusters of the NSIP into this platform. The Council has graciously approved and we will go ahead. The contract is in the sum of N2,123,035,499.96, inclusive of 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) with a completion period of 24 months,” she said.