The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the augmentation and variation for Tada Shonga Irrigation Project in Kwara state, raising the total cost to N10.18bn.
The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, who briefed State House Correspondents in Abuja after the FEC meeting chaired by President Muhamadu Buhari, said the abandoned project which started in 2010, had the completion period of 36 months.
Adamu, who said the ministry of agriculture made it a priority project because of its huge potential for irrigation, especially for rice production, added that the variation had increased the size of the project from 1,500 hectares to 2,200 hectares of irrigation.
He said the variation also included two-megawatt solar power plant to replace the diesel power plant that was in the original design because diesel is expensive, stressing that irrigation system will be unsustainable with diesel.
“So, for that purpose, we sought for the augmentation and variation in the sum of N6.9 billion, raising the project from the original sum of N3.263 billion to N10.18 billion.
“Council was gracious enough to approve this project because of the huge potentials that it has for the food security policy and our desire to make agriculture a focal instrument of our economy.
“This project is located in the Niger River Basin. Between the Rivers Niger and Benue Basins, we have potentials for about 1.8 million hectares for irrigation and we’ve been trying to encourage the private sector to also join us in developing these huge areas with great potentials for agriculture and this is one step forward towards developing the irrigation potentials of that basin,” he added.
The FEC also approved the augmentation of the ongoing Benin-Adumagbe-Igba-Akure Road project in Edo and Ondo States for N4.77bn.
The Minister of State, Works and Housing, Abubakar Aliyu, who briefed journalists, said the project awarded in December 2013 but stopped for lack of funding, had its contract reviewed from the original sum of N3,297,221,221.90 to N4,770,188,497, inclusive of VAT, which is an increase of about N1.48 billion.
Aliyu said the contract was further reviewed downward through the processes of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to the total sum of N4,770,189,493.
