Federal Government of Nigeria has approved $11.174 billion for the construction of Lagos-Calabar coastal rail.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, approved $11.174 billion for the construction of a standard-gauge coastal railway from Lagos to Calabar.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed while addressing newsmen at the end of the FEC meeting which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House, Abuja, said the meeting approved the memo for the ratification of the president’s approval for the award of the contract for the Lagos-Calabar coastal standard-gauge railway.
Mohammed said, “This is a very old project, which we inherited. Under the former administration, an approval was given, but nothing was done, but today, the council has given approval to commence the Lagos-Calabar coastal route.”
The information minister while stating why $11.174 billion is earmarked for the completion of the project in six years, said the rail project is important to the nation’s coastal economy.
He stated that: “This particular route is very important because after the Lagos-Kano route, this Lagos-Calabar coastal route, actually will link all the coastal cities in the country.
“The proposed route alignment is to go from Lagos to Shagamu, Shagamu to Ijebu-Ode, Ijebu-Ode to Ore, Ore to Benin City, Benin to Sapele, Sapele to Warri, Warri to Yenagoa, Yenagoa to Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt to Aba, Aba to Uyo, Uyo to Calabar, Calabar to Akamkpa to Ikom, to Obudu Ranch, with a branch line from Benin City to Asaba, Onitsha Bridge and then Port Harcourt to Onne Deep Seaport.”
According to him, the commitment of the Buhari administration to expanding and consolidating on the rail projects across the country also informed FEC’s approval of the funds for work to commence immediately on the Kano-Jibia rail and the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri route.
Similarly, the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, stated that FEC approved two projects for his ministry. This includes the construction of 2 by 60 MVA 132 33 substations at Gagarawa, Jigawa State, in favour of Messrs Power Control and Appliances Limited in the sum of N154,212,396.05.
Mamman said, “The second one is the award of the contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of 2 by 30 MVA 132 33 substations at Ibiono Ibom, Akwa Ibom State in favour of Messrs YEMEC West Africa Limited in the sum of US$6.2 offshore plus N1.8 billion onshore.”
The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba on his part, said, “Today, the Federal Ministry of Education presented two memos. The first one dealt with ratification of convention Nigeria had already acceded to which seeks to regularise the recognition of certificates and diplomats all across Africa.”
Nwajiuba stated that the second memo dealt with the award of contract for the building of two blocks of social science complexes at Adamawa State University in Mubi for a total sum of N1,103,000,000, which is a TETFUND allocation that emerged from 2017 through 2021.
Gatekeepers News earlier reported that the FEC approved $1.484 billion for the rehabilitation of both Warri and Kaduna refineries.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva who announced this, said the FEC approved the award of contracts for the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries to Messers Saipem SPA and Saipem Contracting Limited.
He noted that $897,678,800 would be spent to overhaul the Warri refinery while the Kaduna refinery will gulp $586,902,256.
According to him, the completion of the rehabilitation exercise would be in three phases which will spread over 77 months.
The minister said, “The completion of the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries is going to be in three phases. First phase will be completed within 21 months, in 23 months phase two will be completed and in 33 months, the full rehabilitation will be completed.”
Sylva on Port Harcourt refinery, said the repair work had commenced, adding that the first 15 per cent of the contract sum has been paid to the contractor and the contractor has been fully mobilised to the site already.
He said, “We also discussed in council the need for us to give periodic updates. Soon, we’ll be going to inspect the work in Port Harcourt refinery, and you will all be with us on that visit.”
