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FG to spend over N30bn on National Assembly renovation

The federal government has said that the renovation of the National Assembly complex will gulp N30.2 billion.

The federal government has said that the renovation of the National Assembly complex will gulp N30.2 billion.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Musa Mohammad Bello, disclosed this during an oversight tour of some projects by the Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory, on Thursday.

A sum of N37 billion was appropriated for the rehabilitation work in the 2020 budget but was slashed to N9.25billion when the budget was reviewed mid year.

But the Minister told the Senate committee that the contract sum for the project is N30.2 billion of which N9.2 billion had been paid to the contractors.

He said the contract, which commenced on April 16, 2022, would be completed on August 15, 2023.

He said the National Assembly Phase II, popularly known as “the White House” has not undergone any renovation work since it was constructed in 1999.

The minister listed other priority projects embarked upon by the FCT Administration to include rehabilitation of Federal Secretariat complex, construction of southern park way from Christian Centre to Ring Road.

Others, he said were rehabilitation of the expansion of Outer Southern Expressway, provision of engineering infrastructure for Wuye District, rehabilitation and expansion of Outer Southern Expressway Villa Roundabout and completion of B6, B12 and Circle Road in the Central Business District.

He however said scarcity of funds made the FCT administration to prioritize some of the projects in terms of full execution.

The minister said: “What we did was because of the scarcity of funds, we prioritised key infrastructure projects to get them completed.

“And in deciding the ones that fit into that category, we looked at the ones that will give the maximum benefit to the maximum number of people.

“All the four projects we visited, you find out that they are all road projects that are meant to link one section of the Abuja city to another and that is the whole idea. The masterplan has been designed in such a way that they complement each other. So, if you finish one portion and you don’t do the other one, then you don’t get the full utility of that particular road.”

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT, Sen. Tolu Odebiyi (APC, Ogun), who led the committee members, assured that important projects would be prioritized in terms of budgeting.

He said, “We believe that in the twilight of this administration, in the next month, it is important we catalogue all the projects that are being done and prioritise the ones that must be completed before the end of this term.

“This is so that we can also make sure we provide the adequate funding and budget for it. Their budget is going to be forwarded to us very shortly and it is important we come and see the state of the work and the completion rate of the programme before we take them on.

“Like any other project, we will make sure all the projects that require priority are given the due attention like any other project.”

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