The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved contracts worth N58.427 billion for roads and agricultural emergency intervention projects.
This was announced Wednesday by the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouk, after the federal cabinet meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Fashola said: “The ministry of works and housing submitted two memoranda. The first was for the termination and re-award of the 49 kilometers section of Abaji to Kotokanfi, which is part of the Abuja-Lokoja highway. It was awarded in favour or Messers Galt for N56.175 billion.
“Hopefully, this should facilitate the completion of that critical Highway, which started in 2006. The second memo was for the revision of the contract some of the Apoto-Alfa/Oyo boundary road in Kwara. The revision was by the sum of N251,530,000 which revised the contract sum from N3,060,000,000 to N3,311,000,000. To enable the contractor make provision for drains to replace unsuitable material and to reconstruct damaged shoulders of the road, as well as accommodate some variation in price. The memo was also approved.”
The humanitarian affairs minister, who announced that FEC approved the National Action Plan on Human Trafficking in Nigeria 2022 to 2026, said council also approved over N2 billion as revised estimated total cost for the supply of cattle for Taraba State under the emergency agricultural integration for states that were affected by conflict and insecurity.
She said: “Today in Council, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development submitted two memos. One is for the revised estimated total cost for the supply of cattle for Taraba state under the emergency agricultural integration for states that were affected by conflict and insecurity. And the other memo is on the national action plan on human trafficking in Nigeria 2022 to 2026. All the two memos were graciously approved by Council this afternoon.”
On the cost, Hajiya Sadiya said: “For the procurement, as I mentioned, it is an agricultural emergency intervention that was to be taken to the conflict affected states, and is in the tune of 2 billion and some millions or thereabout.”
While briefing, the Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, said council also approved the revised science, technology and innovation policy for the country.
He said: “The Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation presented a memorandum to the Federal Executive Council, which we are so happy that the council approved. And the memorandum essentially was a revision of the science, technology and innovation policy for our dear country. There’ve been tremendous advances in science, technology and innovation all over the world and this necessitated the need for our science, technology and innovation policy which was put in place in 2012, 10 years ago, to be revised so that we can keep pace with new and emerging technologies.
“The main objective is for us to use science, technology and innovation, to improve the standard of living of our citizens and ensure that we have high quality of life for all Nigerians. And this we can get if our nation becomes more prosperous, and our economy is more globally competitive. Again, we’ll like to see Nigeria, using this policy, to be one of the top scientific powers in the world.
“We believe that this will help our country to keep narrowing the gap between us and the technologically developed countries of the world. And ultimately, once we achieve that we should also to overtake the way nations like China has done. We should be able to do so.”
