Federal Govt Okays N1.535tn For Road Projects

The federal government has approved the sum of N1.535 trillion for the construction and rehabilitation of eleven roads across the country, under the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Tax Credit Scheme.

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed this yesterday after the federal executive council meeting presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa.

According to him, over N1.5 trillion would be spent on some major roads in Nigeria, totalling over 700 kilometres, adding that they would soon be completed linking 11 states in the country.

He listed the benefiting states to include Edo, Delta, Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Adamawa among others.

“The council gave approval for the construction and rehabilitation of 11 roads totaling 737.242 kilometers in the sum of N1, 535, 154, 247, 234.48 under phase II of the NNPC tax credit scheme.

“Recall that in January this year, the council approved a memo for the NNPC to invest N1.9 trillion on our roads. That amount was then about 44 roads that had been awarded and the balance of those roads that had to go through procurement between then and now are the 11 that have now been approved by the council,” Fasola said.

During his briefing, the minister of interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said the council approved the granting of Nigerian citizenship to 385 foreign nationals residing in the country.

He said the council approved 317 of the applicants to be granted citizenship by naturalization while 68 were granted by registration, adding that all the applicants met the requirements for such an honour.

“Federal Executive Council at its meeting today approved the granting of Nigeria’s citizenship by naturalization to 317 applicants and Nigeria’s citizenship by registration to 68 applicants.

“Those granted citizenship have met all the constitutional and administrative requirements for the grant of Nigerian citizenship,” Aregbesola said.

The minister also disclosed that the council approved a special fire detection and alarm system to be installed in all firefighting stations across the country.

“At the same meeting, the council approved the full business case for a project on National Fire Detection and Alarm System, incorporating life safety systems, networking, monitoring and dispatching at real time.

“This will be through a Public Private Partnership arrangement. At the completion of the project, Nigerians who so desire would subscribe to an automatic fire alarm system that if you have in your house, will raise an alarm at each of the fire service stations nationwide,” he said.

The interior minister said the project will be at no cost to the government and it will be fully digitized thus facilitating prompt response to any fire emergency.