THE Federal Government, on Thursday, inaugurated a project delivery team for the reinvigoration of the Nigerian coal and concession of the remaining Nigeria Coal Corporation (NCC) coal blocks, with a charge on members to take the task very serious considering the renewed efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to use the sector for the diversification of the nation’s economy.
Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Honourable Abubakar Bawa Bwari, who gave this advice during the inauguration in Abuja, said the delivery team comprised representatives from the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), his ministry and the agencies, namely the Mining Cadastre office and the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA); as well as the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and the Ministry of Environment.
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He said the event was, therefore, the culmination of the collaborative effort of both the ministry and BPE to ensure that they have a delivery team that was alive to its responsibilities and capable of advancing the coal to power project of the Federal Government.
Honourable Bwari stressed that the representatives were carefully chosen to reflect both the seriousness of the committee and the overriding need to explore all avenues to generate adequate power for the use of the people.
According to him, the terms of reference for the project include, to develop a roadmap with sufficient information on Nigeria’s coal assets; review and make appropriate recommendations on the coal assets; management of the entire transaction; defining the terms of reference of any consultant that is to be engaged to conduct any study or valuation of the coal blocks; as well as provision of strategic advice to BPE on all aspects of the transaction and preparation of privatization strategy among others.
The minister recalled that at the meeting on April 16, 2015, the National Council on Privatization approved the use of a project delivery team for the privatization of the five remaining coal blocks of the NCC.
“Although that first delivery team was inaugurated less than three months later, on July 2, 2015, subsequent events necessitated the reconstitution of the team because we discovered that there was a need to reflect the agreement that the project would now be jointly managed by the BPE, MMSD, and MCO in view of the complementary mandate of the BPE and MCO to concession the coal blocks through a competitive bidding process,” he added.
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