The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved an extension to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention fund for power Generating Companies (GenCos) in the country.
Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, who disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja on Monday, said the aim was to continue to support the power sector.
She said: “Council also approved an extension of a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention that will be used to continue to support the power sector specifically the generation arm of the sector.”
“This is based on a commitment that we signed into as a country, where we have several guarantees to the Generation Companies (GenCos) to bridge any gap that they have after the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) has settled them.”
The minister explained that the approval was to enable the power companies to take care of the shortfalls after they have been settled by the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET).
She added: “The central bank assurance facility that we got approval for today is to pay the gencos for any financing shortfall that they have after the bulk trader NBET settles them. So it is a cost on government, it is a loan, the government will be paying it back to the central bank.
“The essence is to meet the contractual obligations that government signed with the gencos on the assurance we gave them on off taking any power that they generate after payment is made from the NBET.”
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She said FEC also approved a new import levy for sustainable financing of Nigeria’s membership subscription in the African Union.
The council approved a rate of 0.2 percent as a new import levy on Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) that will be charged on imports coming into Nigeria but with some exceptions.
The minister said the exceptions include goods originating from outside the territory of member countries that are coming into the country for consumptions.
According to her, it also includes goods that are coming in for aid and goods originating from non-member countries but are imported through specific financing agreements that ask for such exemptions.
Ahmed added: “It also exempts goods that have been ordered and are under importation process before the scheme was announced into effect.
“The purpose of this new levy is to enable the African Union member countries to pay on a sustainable basis their subscriptions to African Union.
“The council also approved that for Nigeria knowing that what will accrue from this new levy will be more than what is required as subscriptions to the African Union, that the balance that will be left will be ring first and put in a special account in the Central Bank of Nigeria and will be used to finance her subscriptions to multilateral organizations like the World Bank, African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank and institutions like that. And if there is any excess left from that in the revenue pool, it will be used to finance the budget.”
FEC also approved various contracts worth about N4.3 billion for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Minister of the FCT, Mohammed Bello said this followed the memos he presented on the projects expected to provide infrastructure to the city.
The council approved a contract for the rehabilitation of failed walkways within the Wuse District of the Federal Capital City at the cost of N1.9 billion with a completion period of twelve months.
The second contract was for the preparation of the electricity master plan for Phase IV of the Federal Capital City at the cost of N189 million with completion of ten months.
Also approved was the contract for the design of infrastructure for Institution and Research District which is in Phase III of the Federal Capital City, at the cost of N197 million.
The council similarly approved engineering design of infrastructure for sector G and H in Phase III of the Federal Capital City at the cost of N118.575 million with a completion period of six months.
The fifth contract approved was for the design of inter-skeptic sewage line for the Federal Capital City in the total sum of N125 million.
There was also the contract for the construction of the School of Science at the permanent site of the FCT College of Education Zuba, at the cost of N701 million with a co pelt ion period of 42 weeks.
The other contract is the final engineering design of infrastructure and production of tender documents for Dawaki District in the sum of N259 million with a six month completion period.
Also, a contract for engineering and infrastructure design for a 41km Nyanya-Guruku-Mpape road linking the Outer Northern Express Way was approved for the award at the cost of N174 million with a completion period of six months.
A contract for the supply and installation of a city scanner machine for the Maitama District Hospital was also awarded the cost of N190 million with a delivery period of eight weeks
while the last contract was for engineering infrastructure for Kabusa District at the total cost of N179 million.
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