The federal government has approved an aggregate of N273,933,143,027 for various contracts in ministries of Works and Housing, Environment, Transportation and Police Affairs.
This was disclosed to State House Correspondents after the weekly Council meeting, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
For the Ministry of Police Affairs, Council approved a total sum of N13,321,742,038.83 for the Group Life Assurance for the 318,319 officers and men of the Nigeria Police.
Minister of Police of Affairs, Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi, who disclosed this said the import of the memorandum that conveyed the request to FEC was to keep the Police motivated and encouraged.
“I had the pleasure and honour to inform you that today I have submitted one very important memo to the Federal Executive Council, which has to do with the award of contract for the engagement of insurance underwriters and brokers, with the coverage of Group Life Assurance Scheme for the Nigerian Police Force for the 2022/2023, in favour of Messrs.
“Leadway Assurance PLC as the lead underwriter and three others as co-underwriters, in the total sum of N13,321,742,038.83. This is going to cover our police population of 318,319 officers and men”, he disclosed.
On his part, Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fasola, said Council approved four memoranda, three of which were for various road projects, which aggregated to N135,330,473,335.
He said the fourth memorandum was raised to intervene in the case of former staff of the defunct Federal Mortgage Finance Limited, whose fate, after the crash of the institution became neglected.
The Minister said his memorandum to Council on the almost forgotten former employees of the federal government received the blessing of the meeting, which approved a N4,774,517,205 pensions and gratuity arrears, to be administered by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).
“Needless to reiterate, we made this impassioned appeal to Council today that these people deserve to be treated the way that pensioners of Nigeria Airways and all of those of NITEL had been treated and the amount outstanding as their pensions arrears and gratitude was N4,774,517,205 and essentially on compassionate grounds, Council approved that PTAD should take up this matter, subject to verification, and pay them these monies and also the monthly pensions to be verified, estimated now at N41,096,700”, he said.
On the other three memoranda, Fasola said “I presented four memoranda on behalf of the Ministry of Works and Housing. The first was for the award of the section one of the Minna-Zungeru-Tegina-Kontagora Highway. Section one terminates in Tegina, starting from Minna. It’s 94.9 kilometers, it was approved in favour of a joint; Deveco/HMF Construction in the sum of N87.396 billion, to be funded as previously approved last year, under the tax credit scheme. So this is one of the projects funded by the tax credit scheme that was going through procurement.
“The second was presented on behalf of FERMA, it’s for the award of contract for the construction of the Isheri North Road in Lagos, that connects Ogun State and it’s an alternative route between Lagos and Ogun, to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It’s 11 kilometers, approved in favour of Messrs. Acute Options Limited. Contract price is N2,104,483,730.
“The third approval was with respect to an existing contract, which prices have had to be augmented because of changes in cost of materials, inflation and variation on prices and also to accommodate changes in the fiscal policy between when the project was first awarded in 2014, before this administration, at that time, fiscal policy, with respect to VAT, was 5%. Fiscal policy has since changed to 7.5%.
“So these are some of the reasons why that contract has received an approval for augmentation of an additional N45,829,989,605. That’s the section one, the section from Sapele to Agbor. The section from Agbor to Ewu is still under review and will come to Council when the procurement for augmentation is complete”, he said.
On his part, Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, said Council approved the two memoranda he presented, which cost implications aggregated to the sum of N123,493,723,862.
He said “the first memo is on remediation of simple hydrocarbon impacted sites in Ogoniland, in favour of about 35 contractors, in other words, there are about 35 lots for a completion period of 24 months. The cumulative value of the contract is N95,908,284,452.91.
“Then the second memo that touches on the livelihood programme of the Ogoni people is the construction of 132 KV transmission lines (62 kilometres) and 260 MVA power substations, for the Phase 1 of the Ogoni power project in Winyakara and Bodo in Ogoniland, in favour of Messrs. Enagovot Engineering Limited. It also has a completion period of 12 months. The Ogoni Power Project Phase 1 is approved for N27,585,439,410.13”, he said.
The Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo, who also presented four memoranda said while three of the presentations were in form of Public/Private Partnership arrangements, one was aimed at optimising operations of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA).
“The first to be approved is in respect of the award of contract for the upgrade of Nigerian Ports Authority data center, its servers, storage and business continuity, awarded to Messrs Tenece Professional Services Limited, in the total sum of N1,787,203,792.65, inclusive 7.5% VAT and with a completion period of six months”, he said.
We’ve got the edge. Get real-time reports, breaking scoops, and exclusive angles delivered straight to your phone. Don’t settle for stale news. Join LEADERSHIP NEWS on WhatsApp for 24/7 updates →
Join Our WhatsApp Channel
