FEC Approves N15bn for Benin-Asaba Highway
The Federal Executive Council has approved the sum N15billion contract for the construction of an access road from the existing Benin-Asaba highway to join the link road in Delta State to the 2nd Niger Bridge.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, revealed this while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday.
He said completion of the road will help achieve the dream of inaugurating the bridge before the current administration leaves office in May.
“The Minister of Works presented a memo seeking approval for the award of contract for the construction of an access road from the existing Benin-Asaba expressway to approach the link road to 2nd Niger Bridge in Delta State.
“As you are aware, the government is determined to commission the 2nd Niger Bridge before the expiration of this administration. We can tell you that the bridge itself is substantially concluded but the contract that was awarded today, although the work has started before now, is actually to connect the Asaba-Benin end to the new bridge.
“The contract was awarded to Julius Berge at a sum of N15 billion. They have started the work but they said it is only proper that they have a contract. We can assure you that the road will be finished in good time for us to commission the 2nd Niger-Bridge,” he said.
Mohammed also disclosed that the Council approved the sum of N16 Billion as augmentation for the dualization of Suleja-Minna road in Niger State.
Lai Mohammed also said FEC approved a memorandum of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources recommending the 7-year renewal of consultancy services for the ministry to save foreign exchange on some official engagements, such as the Nigeria International Energy Summit.
Similarly, the Ministry of Water Resources got FEC approval to award a contract for the construction of Jato dam, in Esako-west Local Government in Edo State to provide potable water and for all-year-round farming.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed explained that the Edo State Government had undertaken to under-write 25% of the N8million contract sum, which translates to N2billion.
The National Population Commission also got approval to spend N2.8 billion on the procurement of the series of software it require to conduct the forthcoming census successfully in May, this year.
FEC also approved variations on the contract sums for the completion of the 33KVA sub-stations in Nnewi and a line-bay extention at Onitsha sub-stations.
Briefing State House correspondents on the approval, the Minister of Power, Alhaji Abubakar Aliyu, said the variations, which stood at €3.7m and over N1b, would escalate the total sum to over €5m and about N9b.
