From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

The 18th virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presiding over by President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Eastern Narrow Guage railway project at the cost of $3.02 billion.

It also approved the construction of a deep seaport at Bonny and a railway industrial park in Port Harcourt, at the cost of $703.1 million.

Both of projects are to be funded through the Public/Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, at no cost to the federal government.

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, disclosed this to State House Correspondents on Wednesday at the end of the meeting.

According to Amaechi, the PPP-funded would be executed at $241.2 million (industrial park) and $461.9 million (Bonny deep seaport) respectively.

“The Federal Executive Council FEC has approved the award of contracts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri eastern narrow guage railway, with new branch lines and trans-shipment facilities.

“They’ve also approved the construction of a new deep seaport in Bonny, under PPP and the construction of a railway industrial park in Port Harcourt.

“The railway line will be at the cost of $3,020,279,549. The industrial park, which is under PPP, at no cost to federal government, will cost $241,154,389.31. The Bonny deep seaport will cost $461,924,369, at no cost to the federal government.

“The Port Harcourt to Maiduguri narrow guage railway will have new branch lines: from Port Harcourt to Bonny and from Port Harcourt to Owerri are new lines. There’s another connecting to narrow guage to standard guage at Kafanchan. There is a branch line from Gombe or before Maiduguri to Damaturu and Gashau. That’s what has been approved”, he explained.

On his part, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said the council also approved the setting up of two shoes, garments and leather processing hubs in Aba and Janguza, in Abia and Kano states, under a PPP arrangement.

According to him, the project, which he said would be managed by two companies; a Nigerian and Chinese, would provide about 4,330 direct and indirect job opportunities. He also said the investment is worth N5.1 billion.

“The Council approved the Full Business Skills Compliance Certificate issued by Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Abuja, for the design, finance, upgrade, operate, and transfer of the Nigeria Correctional Service Shoe, Garment, and Leather Processing Factory located in Aba, Abia State as well as Janguza, Kano State under a Public Private Partnership (PPP).

“This full business skills certificate and the investment that will come therefrom amount to N5.1 billion. Invariably, when the partnership comes into effect, the benefit is enormous. About 1,330 people will have direct employment, while about 3,000 people will have indirect employment.

“The benefit beside the employment of Nigerians is the opportunity for training of the inmates of our correctional facilities in Janguza, Kano State and Aba in Abia State. The contract for full business skills compliance certificate is given to Messrs LG Investment Limited, a Nigerian company which is partnering with a Chinese company, Full Technology Incorporated from Beijing, China”, he explained.

The minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, said could also approved the contract for the procurement and installation of automotive/mechatronics equipment in special centres in six geopolitical zones, as well as three pilot workshops and automotive service hubs for the National Automative Design and Development Council (NADDC) at the cost of N1.8 billion.

Explaining the reason for the project, the Minister said “the whole idea is that with the kind of vehicles being manufactured today, we need training institutes that will train our mechanics and our youths how to maintain and service these vehicles”.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who briefed on behalf of his Federal Capital Territory Administration’s counterpart, Mohammed Bello, said council approved the award and contract of the final design of engineering infrastructure and production of tendered documents for Kabusa district phase three of the FCT, Abuja.

He said the district is an area of about 850 hectares which will be mixed use of both private and government, residential and offices.

“It was approved for the sum of N183, 709, 480, 50k to Messrs Techno Engineering and Consult Limited,” he said.

He also briefed on behalf of the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Siriki, said council approved the rehabilitation of the various screening machines nationwide at the cost of N654 million.

“You would notice that with the incident of COVID-19 pandemic, a new protocol sanctioned by IATA and other Aviation authorities has now come into our airports which entails more of social distancing. So you need more points to screen passengers and their luggages. So this is what has necessitated for the rehabilitation of those screening machines that have broken down.”

Mohammed also briefed on behalf of the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, council also approved a memo for the completion of the rehabilitation of the Abeokuta-Ibadan road, a distance of 72 kilometers.

“It was a memo asking for augmentation by N788 million to bring the project cost to N4.78 billion plus six months extension time for construction. So we hope that by 2021, this road will be completed. You need to note also that this was a contract that was awarded in 2010 but due to paucity of funds and other constraints, we have to take it over.”

He said the Secretary to the Government of their Federation, Boss Mustapha, who presented a memo on behalf of President Buhari also presented a memo which was approved seeking Council’s approval for the purchase of 21 operational vehicles for the Federal Road Safety Corps in favour of Messrs Pan Nigeria Ltd in total sum of N292,615 million.

“The purpose of the memo is to enhance the operational capability and capacity of the Corps so that we can stop the carnage on our roads and also secure our roads better.

“The unique thing about this memo is that these vehicles are being sourced from one of our local assemble plants, Peugeot Nigeria Ltd in Kaduna.”