From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday approved contracts for roads and aviation projects worth N59.350 billion.
This was disclosed to State House Correspondents by Ministers of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fasola, Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed who briefed alongside other ministers at the end of FEC meeting held in council chambers at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Fasola said he presented two memoranda seeking approval for the award of contracts worth N50.858 billion.
According to him, a road project in Kano State, worth N12.157 billion and another one linking Kaduna and Plateau states, worth N38.701 billion, were approved by the council.
“The Ministry of Works and Housing presented one memorandum for the award of contract for the construction of two roads; the Yakassai-Badume-Damargu-
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Mohammed Bello, on his part said FEC approved two contract augmentation for his ministry, both being roads.
“As part of opening up rural areas in the FCT, predominantly agricultural area, the Federal Executive Council has approved the revised estimated total cost/augmentation of the contract for the construction of Yaba-Kpahe Road, in Kwali/Abaji area council in the Federal Capital Territory.
“As you know, that is an area that is by River Gurara, which is a very important water body crossing the FCT. It is a very important agricultural area and this particular project, we hope when completed is going to enhanced the economic development of that area, food security in the FCT and bring about security and peace.
“The contract was awarded to Messrs COAN (W.A) Ltd at the sum of N431,640,286 at the completion period of 12 months. The contract sum increased from N914,189,200 to N1,345,829,486.
“Council also approved the revised estimated total cost/augmentation and change in scope of the contract for the construction of one service carriageway of inner northern expressway from Ring Road III to Rind Road IV – Abuja industrial Park. It is supposed to link the road to the rest of the road systems in the territory.
“It is a very important project which we will try as much as possible to fund so that we can see completion within 24 months. The contract is awarded to Messrs Salini Nigeria Ltd at the cost of N7,302,585,139. The contract sum increased from N7,179,322,294 to N14,481,907,414”, he explained.
Mohammed, who reported on the presentation made to the FEC by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said council approved contracts totaling N758,173,556.
According to him, the contracts are for the expansion of the Maiduguri Airport’s apron and another one for the insurance of 22 airport facilities across the country.
“On behalf of the Minister of Aviation, who presented two memos, I want to give you highlight of the two memos. The first memo is a contract for the expansion of the apron at the Maiduguri Airport. This contract is worth N719,117,868.60. It’s awarded to a company called Luvaslink Projects Limited.
“The expansion of the Maiduguri Airport has become necessary because of the increased traffic at the airport. The apron of an airport is actually that area where aircrafts manoeuvres are made, where they turn, where they park.
“The second contract is one awarded to Zenith General Insurance Company and 19 other insurance companies to insure assets, such as terminal buildings in 22 airports belonging to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). The contract is in the sum of N390,550,687.45. Both memos were approved by Council today”, he said.
Meanwhile, the FEC also granted ratification for the Nigerian Road Safety Strategy II (NRSS II), which is designed to reduce road accidents and make traveling safe across the country.
Disclosing this at the briefing after weekly meeting, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr Clement Agba, said the newly ratified NRSS II is an improvement on the NRSS I, which was operated between 2014 and 2018.
“I presented to the Federal Executive Council for ratification, the Nigerian Road Safety Strategy II, which is an update to the maiden of the Nigerian Road Safety Strategy I that was from 2014-2018. The NRSS II seeks to improve on the achieve the of the first edition by further reducing road accidents and fatalities and instituting basis for sustainable road traffic crashes abs fatalities reduction.
“It also looked at the current road safety situation, articulates the desired road safety situation, design implementation of initiatives and programmes. And these Programmes these Programmes and projects were estimated for implementation.
“In putting together the revised document, the NRSS I performance was assessed, benchmarking were done with other regions of Africa and the world in terms of road safety statistics abs road safety strategies before the documentation was put together and costed.
“This has however been taken through the technical working group for review and the national economic council. So what FEC did today was to ratify the decision of the national economic council on NRSS II.
“There are four basic differences between NRSS I and NRSS II. One is the goal setting. For NRSS I, the reduction in road traffic crashes was to be by 35 percent by end of the year 2018, this has been pushed further and reduced to 50 percent by the year 2030.
“In NRSS I there was just one oversight advisory council which was at federal level, the national road safety advisory council. NRSS II has now set up state roads safety advisory councils in addition to the national road safety advisory council.
“Apart from the strategic activities defined in the pillars in NRSS I, NRSS II now includes global framework plan of action. And then the documents that have been rephrased have now increased from four to about nine.
“The pillars upon which this strategy is based are road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer road users which is very paramount, more important than the road conditions, safer vehicles and then the post crash care”, the Minister said.
Meanwhile, five Ministers, including those of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouk, Information and Culture, Mohammed, as well as Ministers of State, Mines and Steel Development, Uche Ogah; and Works and Housing, Abubakar Aliyu, briefed council on the outcomes of their post-#EndSARS protests engagements in Plateau, Zamfara, Kwara, Abia, and Yobe States respectively.