These were disclosed to newsmen yesterday in Abuja by
Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, after the weekly virtual
FEC meeting, which was presided by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State
House.
Giving a breakdown of his ministry’s presentations at the
meeting, Amaechi said he presented two memoranda, one of which was in respect
of the consultancy services, adding that the second one was for the
concessioning of the Onitsha River Port.
The minister said, “Ministry of Transportation presented two
memos and the first one has to do with the contract for consultancy services
for the supervision of the various railway projects. Remember that we have
about three railway projects that are yet to start construction and they
include the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, Kano-Maradi and then the Abuja-Warri.
“For the consultancy services, the following contractors
were approved, with the total cost of $183.7 million: GIX Engineers
Infrastructure Excellence/Yaroso & Partnership Ltd, Core Consulting
Engineering Plc. That’s for Abuja to Warri.
“For the consultancy services for supervision of Port
Harcourt-Maiduguri railway, with branch lines to Bonny Deep Seaport and Port
Harcourt Industrial Park, and, then, to Owerri, we have Kyari Consults
SDMBHD/Jamood Global Services Limited at $97.5 million. The first one is $38.4
million.
“The last one is consultancy services for the supervision of
Kano-Katsina-Jibia-Maradi Rail-line to TEAM (Technics Engineering Architecture
Marketing Nigeria Limited) and that is for $47,670,000 million. All of them are
for a period of 36 months. That’s the first.
“The second one is that the cabinet approved a concession
agreement for the Ministry of Transportation to concession the Onitsha River
Port to a company, called Inversal Elysium Consortium. They are to manage the
river port for 30 years.”
On why the federal government was abandoning the agreements
signed with China on construction of railway in the country, Amaechi explained,
“Actually, that is why there is a delay. We were waiting on the Chinese to give
us the loans we applied for and till today they’ve not replied. They kept
delaying us – will the delay extend our tenure? The answer is no.
“We’ve gone to Standard Chartered Bank and while they’ve
done financial closure, they’ve approved some level of funding. We are also
pursuing Port Harcourt-Maiduguri line with Standard Chartered Bank. The
Lagos-Kano, part of it will come from Standard Chartered Bank, and part of it
will come from some commercial banks in China.”
Speaking at the briefing, Minister of Works and Housing, Mr.
Babatunde Fashola, said the council approved a contract for the dualisation of
the Kano-Kazaure-Kongolam Road at the cost of N115.4 billion. Fashola explained
that the project, which covers 131.4 kilometres, was expected to be completed
within a period of 48 months.
Fashola said, “Ministry of Works and Housing presented one
memo for the dualisation of the Kano-Kazaure-Kongoland highway, 131.4
kilometres, from a single carriage way to dual carriage way. So, council
approved that proposal at a cost of N115,425, 896,907.15 kobo (in billion) over
48months.
“The instructive thing is that the financing will be done by
the Tax Credit Scheme of Bua International Limited. And they will use Messrs PW
Construction Nigeria limited, a company in which they have acquired some
interest, to undertake the construction.”
Briefing newsmen also, Minister of State for Environment,
Sharon Ikeazor, said FEC approved an Energy Transition Plan for the country.
“This memo was presented as a plan for Nigeria to achieve
net zero carbon emission,” the minister said, noting, “this will clearly set
out the pathway for Nigeria in achieving this.”
Ikeazor further said FEC also approved a second memo to aid
the Waste Battery Management Policy for Nigeria.
This policy, according to her, “Will create a lot of jobs in
the circular economy for Nigeria and at the same time protect the health of
Nigerians to make sure that hazardous waste, like waste batteries, are properly
disposed of with regulations, including recycling in Nigeria as well.”
She said her ministry also presented to the council a report
on the last COP 26 (the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference), which
Nigeria attended, and the country’s plans for COP 27 going forward.
On his part, Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunimbe
Mamora, said council, during a closed-door session, also approved the award of
contract for consultancy services to facilitate the building of the corporate
headquarters of National Health Insurance Scheme in Abuja.
Mamora said, “The need has become inevitable to expand what
is on ground to improve the operational efficiency of that agency, which is the
National Health Insurance Scheme and happily, the council considered the memo
approved same.”
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