Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, approved the purchase of medical and laboratory equipment worth N103.7 million for the Nigerian Ports Authority.
Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, told State House Correspondents at the end of the weekly meeting that government would ensure that the clinic can boast of modern equipment.
He said, “The Ministry of Transportation presented two memoranda, one of which was for medical and laboratory equipment for NPA for a total sum of N103.7 million for the purchase.
“The only difference is that we have to buy the one that is digital to ensure that we have more modern equipment in the hospital.
“The second one is that we awarded a contract to a consultant to help in the implementation of the international organisations for the ISO 9000 and the council approved it for us.
“The total sum is N238.576 million.”
On his part, Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said the council also approved the revised cost for the completion of Mangu Water Supply project in Plateau State which was started in 2012 but had no budgetary allocation between 2014 and 2016.
Adamu described the project as one of those government considered as a medium priority after it conducted a technical audit of all abandoned and ongoing projects in water resources in mid 2016.
According to Adamu, “The project has attained 85 per cent completion, thanks to the effort of the contractors who have continued to work at some points without payment.
“After taking so long and in view of the inflation indices, there was a need to augment the project with N122.2 million to bring the project cost from N855.49 million to N977.7 million with an additional completion period of six months.
“We hope that this project will be completed soon so that it will provide the benefit it was intended for the people of Mangu in Plateau State.”
The minister said he also presented a report of the international conference on Lake Chad which took place in February.
“You are aware that the conference was attended by President Muhammadu Buhari and Presidents of the member-states of Lake Chad as well as representatives from Angola and President of Gabon.
“We had over 1,200 participants. Following the conference, we have developed an action plan arising from the recommendations of the conference which we have started implementing.
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“Obviously, because of the queuing process of many memos and reports, we were able to present the report to the cabinet today,” he added.
He said there was a consensus at the conference to save Lake Chad from extinction and that the inter basin water transfer from Congo Basin is the most viable option for achieving it.
“We have an estimate of $14.5 billion,” he said.