BEVERLY HILLS, November 16, (THEWILL) – The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the sum of N27.233 billion to build the Gombe-Biu road.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, as he addressed State House Correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He was with the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed; and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma.
According to Fashola, the road will support access to agricultural facilities, power plant and boost personnel movement but explained that the approval excludes the nine-kilometre already built by the government.
“We presented two documents – a memorandum that required council approval and a note to inform council. They are important because they follow closely and inter-relate with the economy and recovery plan,” he disclosed.
“The memo was a contract for the 117km Gombe-Biu Road, which connects Gombe and Borno states, and leads to Adamawa and Yobe states. The contract is for N27.23 billion.
“The entire road excludes the nine kilometres that has been built by the Gombe State government. The strategic importance of the road is undeniable; it supports agriculture, access to our power plants – Dadin Kowa hydro power plants, and helps security logistics to move personnel and troops to respond to distress calls.
“It will also be critical in the resettlement of IDPs. The road is part of the Northeast Development Plan, so it ticks all the boxes in terms of development.
The other matter has to do with investment in people, security of life and property, which is the revised Nigeria National Building Code.
“This code is eight years behind its scheduled date; the first code was delivered in 2006 and revised in 2009; it has been stalled since then. Needless to say we have completed and approved the new code at the National Council of Housing, which the Ministry of power posted in August.
“The code adopts international building code standards and it seeks to improve fire protection systems in buildings, public and private.
“It also introduces the energy efficiency and green building methods into our national standards,” he added.
On his part, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, said FEC also approved N458 million for consultancy services on the review of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
“Today, the Federal Executive Council approved a memorandum that was brought by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning to retain some consultants to help us conduct some pilot labs,” he said.
“This is part of our implementation strategy for the economic recovery and growth plan, and we intend to conduct three labs- agriculture and transportation, power and gas and manufacturing and processing.
“The key objectives of the labs are: to identify relevant key stakeholders from the public and private sector, that are crucial in the delivery and implementation of the ERGP initiative, to create ownership early on in the development process.
“We will review and re-evaluate the ERGP and sectoral plans against set targets and progress, and will include identifying gaps in the current eco-system, and the key success factors will further deliver detailed three-phase implementation programme line by line implementation activities.
“So what council has approved today is that we bring in consultants who did a similar thing in Malaysia, to build our own capacity. They will just help at the beginning and after that, we will take over and do it ourselves.
“The cost of retaining the Malaysian consultants is N458 million. It is going to cover about three months; the duration of the lab is expected to last a minimum of 13 weeks. It will cover three phases – pre-lab activities (four weeks); conduction of the labs (six weeks) and post lab activities (three weeks). Each lab will at least 100 people from the public and private sectors.
“There will be a pilot scheme run by the consultants but subsequent labs will not be them. They will help us by bringing their international connections, reach and give it credibility. Each lab will cost 500,000 dollars.”
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