2019 approved budget: Power, Works, Housing ministry gets N394.9bn for capital expenditure

The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing is to spend a total of N394.9 billion as its total capital expenditure from an allocation of N428.4 billion.

In the approved 2019 budget, the sum of N869.38 million was set aside a fund for the Mambilla Hydro Power project, N250 million for construction of 215MW LPFO/ Gas Power station Kaduna, N208.5 million for Kashimbilla transmission and N203.85 million for Fast Power Programme Accelerated Gas and Solar Power Generation

On Housing, N24.97 billion was approved for the ongoing National Housing Programme.

Also in the budget, a sum of N3.1billion was earmarked for the Cameroon-Nigeria border project. This involves the provision of an approximated N787.2 million counterpart funding for the ongoing construction of joint border bridge at Mfum/Ekok under the Nigeria-Cameroon International highway and transport facilitation programme.

Moreover, the Ministry allocated a sum of N236.9 million for the Enugu-Bamenda Cameroun road corridor under the same programme.

In 2017, a construction firm, Louis Berger was awarded $1.7 million project management and supervision service by the Nigerian and Cameroonian government for the construction of a two-lane bridge over the Cross River at Mfum/Ekok which serves as a border between both countries.

The project which has a completion period of 18months is part of the Enugu-Bamenda road corridor funded through the African Development Fund joint loan to Nigeria and Cameroon.

Two years ago, the Federal Government(FG) had approved $39.9 billion sourced from the African Development Bank (ADB) for the construction of the Nigeria/Cameroon border link bridge at Ikot-Efiom in Cross River State.

The project funded under the bank’s support for improving relations between Cameroon and Nigeria following the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment, which ceded Bakassi to Cameroon.

It covers ‎part of the ‎link road between Enugu/Abakaliki highway, which is at an advanced stage of completion and larger part of the Lagos/Mombasa highway.

Former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola at one of the Federal Executive Council meetings disclosed that $38 million is for the construction contract while $1.9 million is for consultancy under the ADB procurement guidelines.