The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a total of N29,083,577,000 for projects in two ministries including Works and Housing, and Mines and Steel Development.
This was part of the outcomes of the council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this while briefing correspondents at the end of the meeting, said N27,233,577,000 billion was approved for the rehabilitation of the 30Km Idoani-Otuo Road.
He stated: “This is on behalf of the Honourable Minister of Works and Housing, who presented a memo for the approval of the award of contract for the rehabilitation of the 30-kilometre Idoani-Otuo Road, which links Ondo and Edo states and close to Kogi State.
“The contract is for the sum of N27,233,577,000 billion and awarded to Mother Cat Limited and has a completion period of 36 months.”
The council also approved a N1.85 billion contract for the construction of about 27 kilometres of retaining wall to contain the loss of raw salt from the salt lakes in Ebonyi State.
Speaking on this, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, said the project, which is being funded directly by the Presidency, will not only save the country millions of dollars in foreign exchange but also substantially close the local salt demand gap.
He explained: “We came to council for approval, there’s an intervention, direct intervention by the President, for a salt project in Ebonyi State. We import our salts from abroad, spending annually, something in the region of about $88 million. Now by this project, it will mitigate that, it will not satisfy local demand, but at least meet some of the local demand and save us the Forex.
“The salt is in Ebonyi State, of course, naturally, but it cannot be mined without this infrastructure that we’re about to do, we’re building a retaining wall because water comes in and washes the salt away every time. These are salt lakes that occur naturally, so the salt is in the lakes, but when water comes in, it washes the salt away.
“So, after the environmental impact analysis was done, the report suggested that we needed to build a retaining wall. This retaining wall is about 27 kilometres long and about 2.9 meters high. This is what we came to Council for, it’s being funded directly from the Presidency, it was awarded to Reinforced Global Resources Limited, at the sum of N1.85 billion for the retaining wall. It was approved and the contract will go ahead. It will be achieved in six months.”
On the necessity of the project, Adegbite said: “Nobody’s producing salt from mining. We have a few companies that are doing edible salts, but the salts that you produce from mining have a wide range of applications, industrial salts. Salt is used in industry for so many things. It can also be prepared to be edible. Sea salts are actually better health-wise than other kinds of salts.
“We have that resource there in Ebonyi State, their salt lakes, the salt oozes from under and it comes there when the water dries out. But when the rain comes, it washes the salt out, which is why we are putting this restraining wall now, so the salt cannot go out, we can mine it.
“This will be the first of its kind in Nigeria, it will, of course, replace all the money we spend, about $88 million annually, to important such salt.”
The council similarly approved the second phase of the National Sugar Masterplan, a 10-year plan, which government believes, will save $350 million annually and create 110,000 jobs.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, stated this in remarks at the press briefing, noting that apart from foreign exchange savings and job creation targets from the second phase of the masterplan, Nigeria also looks forward to saving $65.8 million on ethanol import and generate 400 megawatts of electricity.
While stating that investments in the national sugar policy are aimed at stimulating self-sufficiency in the commodity, Adebayo said no fewer than 15,000 jobs have been created through key players in the industry.
He said: “Today, my ministry brought a memo seeking the Council’s approval for the second phase of the National Sugar Masterplan. In 2012, the first phase of the sugar master plan was approved, lasting from 2012 to 2022.
“Today, council approved the extension from 2023 to 2033. That’s for another 10 years and the whole idea of the Sugar Masterplan is for the development of the sugar industry, for self-sufficiency in sugar production.
“The plan has several policy measures or fiscal incentives to stimulate demand and attract private sector investment in the sugar industry. Part of the benefits of the sugar master plan is the local production of sugar.
“We have under phase one, four major investors, investing in the industry. These are Dangote Sugar, BUA Sugar, Golden Sugar Company which is flour mill, Care Africa Group which bought the Baccita sugar mill.
“They have jointly created 15,000 jobs, and they have over almost about 200,000 hectares of land that has been acquired for the production of sugarcane to enable them to produce sugar locally. So Council approved phase two of the National Sugar Masterplan.”
On the targets of the second phase of the masterplan, Adebayo said: “The sugar masterplan has witnessed many successes since 2012 when it was first approved. Nigeria has a sugar refining capacity of three million metric tons of raw sugar a year bow. We have embarked on the Backward Integration Project, which has attracted over $3 billion worth of investments from the four major investors that I mentioned earlier.
“Investments have also been made in Greenfield Sugar Projects, that is smaller projects all across the country. In Jigawa, Kogi, Zamfara, Oyo and Sokoto states. We’ve also established the National Sugar Institute in Ilorin.
“Those are some of the achievements that we have had over the past 10 years and phase two of the Sugar Masterplan that has just been approved, we’re hoping that as a result of this phase two, we will be able to create 110,000 jobs from it.
“We are hopeful that Nigeria will be able to produce 1.7 to 1.8 million metric tons of sugar a year, thus eliminating the $350 million that we spend on the importation of raw sugar.
“We’re hoping to produce 161 million litres of ethanol annually, which will thus eliminate $65.8 million of ethanol imports annually. We’re hoping to generate 400 megawatts of electricity and we’re hoping to produce 1.6 million tons of animal feed annually.”
Meanwhile, FEC has approved a total sum of N580,500,000 for the purchase of four armoured personnel vehicles by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as a result of its successes in bursting drug lords and cartels.
The approval followed heightened attacks on personnel of the agency, according to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, whose ministry has supervisory responsibility over the agency.
Speaking on the approval, he said: “Today, a memo was presented by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation. Specifically the Federal Ministry of Justice. The memo is related to a parastatal under the supervision of the Office of the Attorney General, which is the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
“The purpose of the memo was to seek the approval of Council for the award of contract for the supply of 4 customized armored security vehicles or 14 seater model vehicle for the NDLEA in favour of Devcom Integrity Services Limited and the contract sum of N580,500,000 only, inclusive of the 7.5 Value Added Tax.
“It has a delivery period of 16 weeks. It is common knowledge to all that in recent times the NDLEA has been repositioned and arising from the support in terms of capacity-building hardware and associated things, they have recorded an extraordinary unprecedented success.
“Of recent and still in our memory is a seizure of cocaine having a market value of about $278 million, which in Nigeria Naira translates to about N194 billion naira and in terms of volume is about 1.8 tonnes. So with all these successes recorded, it is only logical that the criminals and criminal syndicate are now devising means, inclusive of attacks on the personnel of the NDLEA.
So it is with that in mind that a memo was presented to FEC seeking approval of the Council for the procurement of armored vehicles for the agency.
“The memo was taken and at the end of the day, it was approved, contract for the procurement of 14 seater armoured personnel vehicles which was approved. The delivery period for the vehicles to the NDLEA is 16 weeks from today. And the company that has been granted the contract is Devcom Integrated Services Limited.
“We are happy with the successes being recorded by NDLEA for the purpose of further information. I think it is relevant to state that NDLEA has succeeded in many ways.
“Between January and July 2022 it has succeeded in arresting over 18,940 suspects. They have equally secured 2,904 convictions within the period, which has led in effect to the unprecedented reprisal attacks on officers. So with the progress being recorded, it becomes necessary that the agency be supported with armoured vehicles and Council has considered and indeed approved accordingly.”
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