Employees premium: FEC okays N9.2bn contract for insurance companies

The council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja on Wednesday, gave the nod following deliberation on a memo by the Head of Service of the Federation.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who briefed correspondents on behalf of the Head of Service, said the premium covers federal government employees, public servants, para-military and the intelligence community.

He said it is part of the government’s welfare initiative to ensure that the workers are paid compensation in case of death.

The minister said: “On behalf of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, I will like to report that council today approved the award of contract for the appointment of insurance companies for group life assurance for federal government employees, public servants, paramilitary and the intelligence community for the year 2021-2022 in the sum of N9, 248. 995, 907 and this premium is for a period of 12 months.

“This is part of the government’s welfare programme for our public employees so that in case of death, they are assured that there would be compensation.”

The council also approved another contract worth about N5.6 billion for the establishment of one oxygen production plant in each of the 36 states of the country, worth N5.6 billion.

Mohammed, who spoke on this on behalf of the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, revealed: “The Minister of Health presented a memo, which was approved, for the emergency supply, installation and maintenance of oxygen production plants and construction of plant houses in each of the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.

“The contract was approved in the sum of N5, 615, 127, 479 inclusive of 7.5 per cent VAT, in favour of four different companies, with a completion period of 20 weeks.”

He said the approval was to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made oxygen a very critical commodity.

He said that the council similarly approved N18.1 billion for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, for the development of infrastructure and Kano and Calabar Free Trade Zones, as well as the Textile and Garment Park in Lagos and the Special Economic Zone, Lekki–Lagos.

Mohammed explained that the approval was of critical importance to the infrastructure development plan of the country.

The minister added that the council also approved the sum of N1. 1 billion for the procurement of aviation security uniforms and accessories for use in various airports across the country.

He said: “Minister of Aviation got an approval for the award of contract for direct procurement for the design, manufacture and supply of aviation security uniforms and accessories. The sum total is N1,127,945.

“The unique thing about uniforms for the aviation industry is that it has some International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards that would be followed.”

Furthermore, the Information Minister further disclosed that the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs also got an approval of N864.7 million for two road contracts that were abandoned by previous administrations.

“The Minister of Niger Delta got approval for Okpula-Igwartanta Phase I linking Imo and Rivers State, started in 2010. He got approval for a variation of N620, 763, 000. He also got approval for erosion flood control on Ndemili-Utagba-Onitsha road in Delta State, which started in 2014. The council today approved N244 million to augment the original contract sum,” he explained.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said she briefed the council on the latest National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report of the nation’s GDP and presented the first quarter of 2021 GDP results and other performance indicators of Nigeria.

On his part, the minister of Environment, Mahammad Mahmud, said the council approved the revised national policy on climate change.

He said: “The last one was in 2012 and it became necessary for us to revise based on what has been happening in the last three years since 2012, particularly with the various agreements.

He explained: “We all know climate change is our topic of today, it has serious implications on economy, livelihoods.

“The environment in general and economic change affect everybody but we have realised that it affects women even more and on this, we also know that we have a national policy on gender and climate change as approved. This revised one has also put into consideration the national policy on gender and climate change to include women in almost every aspect of climate projects executions.

“We all know that recently, a lot of flooding has been happening and is as a result of climate change, insecurity is relatable with climate change.

“This climate change policy has reposition Nigerians to begin to upgrade all that we have achieved so that we can present during the meeting.

“Its implementation strategy is to be all-encompassing. We have met with several MDAs, agencies and civil society organisations and even the media because this is something that requires all hands to be on deck as we are all potential polluters of the environment causing climate change.“Eventually and ultimately the objective is to help Nigeria that is climate-resilient and also gender-sensitive in the future and that is the vision of this policy because the world is moving towards carbon neutrality.

“It is assumed that by the year 2015, we should have carbon neutrality. Today, now is the time to get prepared for that so that is what the policy is all about to drive towards a Nigeria that is sustainable environmentally.”

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Employees premium: FEC okays N9.2bn contract for insurance companies