FEC okays general electric for Lagos-Ibadan railway

THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved General Electric (GE) to supervise the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan railway line.

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, revealed this while briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of deliberation on the memo submitted to FEC by his ministry.

He said council also approved a memo from the Ministry of Transport for the commencement of negotiations following the submission the Outline Business Case (OBC) by General Electric (GE).

According to the minister, the transaction advisors will now commence negotiations with GE to conclude concession of the railway narrow gauge which starts from Lagos to Kano to Funtua, Kaura-Namoda and then from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, which includes Aba, Umuahia, Enugu, Markudi, Jos, Bauchi, Gombe on to Maiduguri.

He said: “The next memo that was approached has to do with the consultant that will supervise the construction of Lagos-Ibadan railway and when we award the Kano-Kaduna railway the same consultant has also been approved.”

Wednesday’s meeting also approved a memorandum for the establishment of the Nigerian Office of Trade Negotiations put forward by the Minister of Trade and Investments, Geoffrey Enelamah.

Enelamah, who spoke on it, explained that the office was necessary to coordinate negotiations by government agencies in the country.

He said: “Trade is something that is quite pervasive.  We get involved in a lot of negotiations and a lot of MOUs assigned on trade. What we found was this was happening in various ministries and agencies and department with insufficient coordination and therefore , it had unintended consequences and cost for us.

“There are a number of examples of these things that have happened so the cabinet decided that it is wise to establish a coordinating central office for trade negotiations.

“The Nigerians office for trade negotiations which will be headed by a chief negotiator of ambassadorial rank that will then work with both the economic management team and the cabinet.

“Some of the objectives of that office will be to help us to coordinate the various trade discussions and negotiations that will hold and to achieve coherence in our policies so that our policies will pull our trade together.

“As part of an offensive strategy of being proactive in engaging some of the discussions we are having on the continental free trade area agreement that we are negotiating or other free trade agreement that we have entered into with strategic partners all over the world.

“Then finally, it will also help us in the implementation of our economic recovery and growth plan because clearly, there is an intention to engage and work with other countries in that process.

“We also want to make sure that we have trade remedies against dumping, substandard goods and all the other things which is something that is allowed the world over.

“This office will also take responsibility to make sure that we achieve all these objectives.”

FEC also approved a new Yellow Fever vaccination card, which Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, said would soon be introduced.

He said card has advanced security features that would make it difficult to be faked.
“One of the challenges we had in the past with the current yellow card is that it could be issued by anybody and those who did not even receive the vaccination could also in fact get a card signed for them.

“With this new card, you cannot fake the yellow card. Using a card reader, we can also document your vaccination status. So, we know whether you have been genuinely vaccinated or not.”