May 19, (THEWILL) – The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a N169 billion private sector investment for road infrastructure, through the Nigerian government’s Tax Credit Programme.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, made the disclosure while briefing State House Correspondents after the weekly meeting of the Council, held at the Council Chambers at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The meeting was chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, the Programme was initiated in 2019 through Executive Order 7 signed by the President, which allowed the private sector to finance public infrastructure in lieu of tax and then offset it over time using tax credits.
He explained that the first project the Council approved Wednesday, based on the policy, was the 234-kilometre road from Bali to Sheti, through Gashaka to Gembu in Taraba state, at the sum of N95,232,474,010.72.
Fashola further disclosed that an existing N20 billion under NNPC Tax Credit Scheme would be used to kickstart the project immediately.
“The second road which is also the tax credit scheme, which was approved by Council, is actually three roads. The applicant, in this case, is Mainstream Energy Solutions, a major energy player in the country is now seeking to also participate in this policy by investing a total of N74,486,577, 050″, he said.
On his part, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who briefed on behalf of his counterparts in Aviation, Power and Agriculture, said the Council approved the sum of N3,491,622,340 for the purchase of a property in Abuja for the Ministry of Aviation.
He explained that the property to be acquired was to enable the Ministry to co-locate with many of its agencies.
Mohammed said the Council awarded a N553.575 million contract for the establishment and deployment of Advanced Report Generation Utility Engine Web-based Reporting Tools, in favour of Messers Sinecou Limited, with a delivery date of 12 months.
He said Council approved for the Power ministry, the upward review of the original contract sum in respect of the construction of 232 kilometres Yola, Song, Gombe, Mubi, Gulako 132 KV double circuit transmission line from $16 million-plus N1.248 billion to $16.698 billion-plus N2,337,643,640.
Mohammed added that the sum of N409 million was approved for the Power ministry to purchase replacements of defective circuit breakers, even as he disclosed that a memo of the Minister of Agriculture seeking approval for a National Agricultural Technology Innovation Policy was approved.
Also, Minister of State for Finance, Clement Agba, said the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, presented a memo on Phase 3 of the Lighthouse Programme on the digital infrastructure of voluntary assets and income declaration scheme bids and tax harmonisation normalisation analytics and application program interface.
He said the update on the project Lighthouse application was on the debt recovery module, the corporate profiling engine as a government gateway, and then the project Lighthouse website, federal government revenue performance management module and capacity building.
Agba disclosed that with the Phase 1 and 2, the government has been able to recover the sum of N5 billion from contractors, assuring that with the implementation of the third phase, more recovery would be made.
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