The Federal Government, Wednesday, approved N6.17 billion to augment the contract for the construction of Ikot-Ekpene border-Aba-Owerri Road, Section 1, Phase 1.
Briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Suleiman Zarma, Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing said that the contract was awarded in 2012, but the augmentation had to come following some observations by the contractor.
“FEC has given approval for the augmentation of the contract for construction of Ikot-Ekpene border-Aba-Owerri Road, Section 1, Phase 1 and the length is 11.26km.
“The contract was awarded in 2012 to Arab Contractors at the cost of N3.78 billion; it came up for augmentation because the contractor actually observed some failures in the contract around some sections of the road.
Actually, it is a one lane, but with the augmentation now, it will be dualised; the contract period is 12 months and the cost after augmentation is now N6.17 billion,’’ he said.
Also, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, stated that the FEC has approved the sum of N2,451,400,000 billion ($6.8 million) loan from AfDB to finance inclusive basic service delivery and livelihood empowerment integrated programme for the rebuilding of the North-east.
Mrs. Ahmed, while briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, said that there was a previous facility which included coverage of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States, and some specific institutions were beneficiaries.
She added that a federal science and technology college in Lassa, Borno State that was one of the beneficiaries but due to the activities of insurgents, it suffered severely and could not be carried out.
“Now, what we are trying to do is to go back to the projects, to this particular institution to make sure we are able to rehabilitate the institution and also undertake a complete skill, training and educational project that will mitigate against the challenges that the institution has had.
The facility is a concessionary loan. It has an interest rate of one per cent and it is payable over a 30-year period and it has five years moratorium,” the Minister said.
Speaking further, Mrs. Ahmed said that the Council also approved the sum of N689.9 million for the appointment of six parties for promissory note programme and a bond issuance to settle local debts and contractual obligations of the Federal Government.
