FEC Approves Onitsha-Asaba Access Roads, Okay's N121.5bn for Roads, Abuja Infrastructure

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the com­mencement of the engineering design and con­struction of two access roads to boost the work on the 2nd Niger Bridge.
The link roads, from Asaba, in Delta State, to Onitsha in An­ambra State, are meant to facil­itate the ongoing construction of the 2nd Niger Bridge.
The engineering design of the link roads will be completed within six months – after which their construction will begin in earnest.

This was one of the major outcomes of the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, yesterday, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The FEC also approved the construction and rehabilitation of several roads in 12 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abu­ja, at the cost of N82.25 billion.
Another N19 billion con­tract was approved by the FEC for the provision of additional infrastructure in Jahi residen­tial district of Abuja.
Briefing journalists on the outcome of the FEC meeting on Wednesday, the Ministers of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, and his FCT counterpart, Mohammed Bello, disclosed that an approv­al was given for the engineering and consultancy design for ac­cess roads 1 and 2 to link Asaba in Delta State and Onitsha in An­ambra State, as part of the 2nd Ni­ger Bridge project on which work has resumed.
Fashola said: “Subsequent to the award of further works of the Second Niger Bridge, we have started work now by this approval on the design of the link road that will connect the two states to the bridge. The design is expected to be completed in six months and we will start procurement and as the bridge advances, we can then connect the two states. The con­tract sum is N150,840 million.”
“The other approval is for 12 roads in various states, includ­ing Numan, Jalingo roads, con­necting Adamawa and Taraba states; replacement of bridges at Mayachi, along Guza-Sokoto Road in Zamfara state and con­struction of roads in Bauchi, Pla­teau, Osun, Kwara, Kano, Oyo, Enugu, Kaduna and Kano States. These roads are to cost N80 bil­lion while a vital 5km road to link Ring Road III to Wasa Junction with Karshi-Arab-Apo Road in Abuja, will gulp N2.45 billion”.
There were also approvals for power projects relating to the ex­tension of the consultancy and project management contract for the Katsina Wind Energy Farm project. It was awarded in 2010 and should have been complet­ed in 2013.
“The expatriate who was im­plementing it was kidnapped and when he was eventually rescued, he never came back and that de­layed the project. But we have revived the project; a new con­tracting team is back on site. The contract of the consultants repre­senting us has expired and so we are extending his contract to cov­er new period of completion,” the minister explained.
Fashola further revealed that a power sector recovery pro­gramme was approved by FEC, and that it comprises many pol­icy actions, operational and fi­nancial interventions that need to be carried out by government to improve transparency, service delivery, performance of DISCOs, Transmissions companies and the entire value change in order to create more viable power sector that is private sector driven.
“Some of the highlights of the programme are how to sim­plify and reduce the cash deficits that have accumulated as a re­sult of previous unilateral reduc­tions of tariff by the last adminis­tration during the run-up to the elections, how to make the DIS­COs viable, accountable, respon­sive to customers, ensure stabili­ty of the grid and expansion of the grid and transparency and com­munication within the sector.”
“There are also processes for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) debts and how to improve sector governance, our roles in the business, the quality of personnel on the board of the DISCOs, it addresses access to re­newable energy especially in rural areas using mini-grids and stand-alone solutions and how we are going to carry out the solutions that have been developed for 37 federal universities and seven ter­tiary hospitals.
“And how to solve the Niger Delta problem and also how to ensure there is a stable and pre­dictable foreign exchange pol­icy for the sector, so that it is somewhat protected from sud­den head winds of the volatility of the foreign exchange market so that they can plan and deliv­er. Also, how to address the issue of vandalisation at consumer and production levels of pipelines and so on as this will help bring con­fidence to the market and stim­ulate the appetite that currently exists globally for Nigeria’s pow­er sector”, he stated.
Other approvals of FEC yes­terday as announced by the FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello, are the award of a contract for Phase 2 of the Abuja Mass Transit Lot 1B (26.77km), which is from Ring Road I, passing through Area 10, beside Wuse Market, Berger Junction, Jabi Motor Park, through Life Camp to Gwagwa.
This and the remaining part of Lot 1A (5.76km) rail tracks and accompanying roll­ing stocks; workshop equip­ment and three-year manage­ment contract was awarded to Chinese firm, CCECC at a cost of $1.79 billion – to be funded by China’s EXIM Bank.