Federal Govt Approves N52.204bn For Contract Reviews, Refund To Yobe

Federal government has approved N52.203 billion for contracts, including variations, across ministries, as well as a project expenditure refund to Yobe State.

The minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this yesterday in Abuja when he spoke on the memoranda presented by ministers of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), his Federal Capital Territory (FCT) counterpart, Bello Muhammed.

The ministers of industry, trade and investment, Niyi Adebayo, labour and employment, Chris Ngige, also spoke on the approvals they secured for their ministries during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday.

Mohammed said the Ministry of Works and Housing received approvals for two memoranda, one being a revised cost for the construction of the Yola-Hong-Mubi Road, which was put at N29.826 billion and the approval for a refund of N18.663 billion to Yobe State for works done on federal roads and bridges.

The minister of works and housing also wrote two memos, which were also approved. The first is the memo seeking FEC’s approval for the revised estimated total cost of the award of contract for the rehabilitation of the Yola-Hong-Mubi Road in Adamawa State, for the sum of N29.826 billion, thereby revising the initial contract from the original N21.841 billion to N51.668 billion.

The contract was awarded to Messrs. EC Construction Limited and it has an additional 24 months for completion.

The second memo by Fashola sought the Council’s approval for the reimbursement of the funds recommended for refund for Yobe State government. The state government has asked for the sum of N18.663 billion as reimbursement for five federal roads, which they rehabilitated or constructed.

The minister said the Council approved N1.113 billion for the revised estimation of a power project for the Gwarimpa axis of the FCT, adding that it was initially awarded in 2015 at the cost of N527 million.

On his part, Adebayo said he got approvals for the two memoranda he presented to the Council, including the repeal of the Produce Enforcement of Standards Act of 2004 for the approval of the enactment of the Federal Produce Inspection Service Bill 2022.

He said the second memorandum was for Council to “approve the award of contract for consultancy services for the pr- development of the Funtua Integrated Textile and Garment Park, in Katsina State and for the Medical Tourism Park in Lekki Special Economic Zone in Lagos State in the total sum of about N1.4 billion to Messrs Tata Consulting Engineers in partnership with Messrs Abi Grant Limited”.

During his briefing, Ngige said he presented two memoranda for the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), which is aimed at digitising the parastatal and creating the eNSITF platform to combat the menace of fraudulent practices in the system.

“The portal management committee will manage the portal be the fourth that somebody has that there’ll be a management committee and because of that, we’ll still be there for call for the portal and the costs for the portal and management and the solutions, the upgrade and everything they are putting for eNSITF is N1.2 billion.

The second memo was on employment, job creation, he said, adding that “it’s a portal called Nigerian Labour Exchange (NILEX), it’s housed in my ministry but over time, because it’s not being developed, the portal is so small it cannot take stress of the number of people wanting to go into that, that digital platform is supposed to be used by employers on one hand and job seekers.

“The employers will come in and load the vacancy they have, the type of skill they want, the qualifications of people that can fit in there,” he said.