FEC re-awards part of Abuja-Lokoja road contract for N56.175bn

The Federal Executive Council (FEC), Wednesday, approved sundry contracts, including re-award of the 49 kilometres section of Abaji to Kotokarfi, a part of the Abuja-Lokoja highway, in favour of Messers Galt for N56.175 billion.

Minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, made this known while briefing State House journalists after the weekly virtual FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The 49 kilometres section of the Abuja – Lokoja road’s contract was first awarded in 2006 but was terminated and represented for execution by the ministry of works and housing.

The minister said FEC also revised the costs of some of the contracts earlier awarded, including those of the Afo-Apoto-Oyo boundary road in Kwara.

“The revision was by the sum of N251,530,000 which revised the contract sum from N3,060,000,000 to N3,311,000,000”

The additional cost will enable the contractor make provision for drains to replace unsuitable material and to reconstruct damaged shoulders of the road, as well as accommodate some variation in price.

Minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management and social development, Sadiya Farouq on her part, said she presented two memos for the revised estimated total cost for the supply of cattle to Taraba State under the emergency agricultural integration for states affected by conflict and insecurity.

According to her, it was approved at the cost of over N2 billion. Also approved was a memo on the national action plan on human trafficking in Nigeria from 2022 to 2026.

Minister of science and technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, said FEC approved a memo for the revision of the science, technology and innovation policy for the country.

Onu, while noting that there has been tremendous advancement in science, technology and innovation all over the world, said, “this necessitated our science, technology and innovation policy which was put in place in 2012, to be revised so that we can keep pace with new and emerging technologies”

The main objective is for the country to use science, technology and innovation, to improve the standard of living of Nigeria’s citizens and ensure that the country has a high quality of life for all Nigerians.

It will ultimately help the country tackle development challenges the way nations like China has done.

Minister of state for budget and national planning, Clement Agba, said the Federal Government was committed to further reducing inflation and its impact on the economy

Agba, however, noted that though the Nigerian economy has moved in the right trajectory for some time now on a consistent basis, its impact on the lives of Nigerians was yet to manifest.

He, therefore, assured of the government’s determination to ensure that the inflation rate which has been on a downward trend is brought lower as the government continues to work ways of reviving the economy.

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Citing the National Development Plan 2021-2025, he added that work on reviving the economy is a continuous process even as he said he could not provide a definite timeline to reduce the inflation to the level that will positively impact all Nigerians.

“I think first we need to understand what GDP itself means. It’s the totality of the value of goods and services; it’s an indication of what is happening in the economy when you are having more to spend and more transactions going on.

“It means that the economy itself is growing and if it is declining, and you have such negative decline in two quarters, then we will say you are in a recession.

“And NBS has consistently given these figures, whether they are positive, or they are negative, and then we compare them either on a month-on-month basis or year-on-year.

“And then we also have what those figures are, annually, which tend to show us or indicate whether we are making progress or not. What those numbers show is that there’s steady progress that is being made. Whether it is far-reaching enough, is a different ball game,” Agba said.