FEC okays N458m to engage ERGP consultants

THE Federal Executive Council (FEC), has approved the engagement of a Malaysian based consultant at the cost of N458 million to conduct a study that will aid implementation of the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

The approval came at its regular meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa, Abuja on Wednesday.

Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma said the job of the consultant is to identify relevant stakeholders in both private and the public sectors for the implementation of the economic recovery and growth plan of the federal government.

He explained that the study will be conducted on agriculture, transportation, power, and gas and processing.

Udoma stated: “Today, the Federal Executive Council approved a memorandum that was brought by the Ministry of budget and National Planning to retain some consultants to help us to conduct some pilot labs.

“This is part of our implementation strategy for the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and so we intend to conduct three labs- one in agriculture and transportation, one in power and gas and one in manufacturing and processing.

“The key objectives of the labs are as follows. One, to identify all relevant key stakeholders from the public and private sector that are crucial in the delivery and implementation of the ERGP initiative so as to create ownership early on in the development process.

“We will review and re-evaluate the ERGP and sectorial plans against set targets and progress and will include identifying gaps in the current ecosystem and the key success factors will further deliver detailed three phase implementation programme line by line implementation activities.

“We will identify entry point projects, we will identify key performance indicators, breaking down silos and encouraging key players.”

He added that the focus of the lab is to mobilize private sector investment to finance specific capital projects since public resources are limited.

While noting that the labs will bring in private sector players, the minister said the government will look at the various areas including infrastructure, manufacturing and bring them in and mobilise private sector financing and resources for the labs.

“So what council has approved today is that we bring in some consultants who did a similar thing in Malaysia to try to help us build our own capacity, they will just help us at the beginning and after that, we will take over and do it ourselves,” he added.

FEC also approved the construction of Gombe-Biu Road at the cost of N27 billion. Power, Works and Housing.

Speaking on this, the Minister, Babatunde Fashola, said his ministry presented two documents for council’s approval.

He said the first was a memo was a contract of the Gombe – Biu Road that connects Gombe State to Borno and also leads to Adamawa and Yobe.

According to him, the contract was for N 27.23 billion for a 117km.

The minister said the strategic importance of the road “is undeniable” as it supports agriculture, access to power plants – Dadin Kowa hydropower plants.

He added: “It also helps security logistics to move personnel and troops to respond to distress calls. It also going to be critical in the resettlement of IDPS. It’s part of the North East Development plan.

“So, it ticks all the boxes in terms of development and so on and also as far as budget implementation is concerned, this is one further step in that direction.”

According to him, his second memo concerned the Revised National Building Code which was also approved by the council.