Members of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet rose from their deliberations on Wednesday to approve N206 billion for roads and associated infrastructure that would link the second Niger bridge in the South East.
The approval was in addition to N14 billion already expended by the Federal Government in the bridge construction.
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, gave the explanation shortly after the meeting, where he noted that the immediate past administration under Goodluck Jonathan initiated the project under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) but failed to complete it.
“FEC approved a contract for the construction of link road and associated infrastructure for the 2nd Niger Bridge.
“The road approved is about 1.95metres stretch. It will gulp N206 billion and it will include not just the link road but also associated infrastructure.
“Remember, the project was conceived by the last administration under the PPP arrangement but it failed; so far, about N14 billion has been put into the project,” Mohammed explained.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Mines and Solid Development, Abubakar Bawa, has lamented the dearth of data in guiding planning in the mining sector, adding that the development compelled the presidency to approve contracts for exploration and consultancy on selected minerals.
Bawa gave the contract sum as N12.7 billion, noting that the idea was to woo both local and foreign investors into the mining sector.
He also revealed that several investors who had indicated interest to invest in Nigeria had withheld their investments over uncertainties in the sector.
His words: “Our major challenge in diversification programme of the government in the mining sector has been that of data.
“Today, the Federal Executive Council approved the contract for exploration and consultancy on some of our targeted minerals like gold, industrial minerals, earth metals, iron ore for four companies in exploration and four companies in the consultancy aspect, and this contract is worth N12.7bn.
“With this, we will encourage both local and foreign investors to come in.
“Our Major challenge is the bankable data, most mining companies will not want to come into your country when they are not sure of what they are going to meet.
“Nigeria has the potential for minerals although we have not been known as a solid mineral destination.
“We have been known as an oil and gas destination. The perception is gradually changing and for us to really encourage these people to come in, we really need to explore because you cannot mine without information and information can only be gotten through exploration.
“The government today approved for us to start with some of our targeted minerals in line with what we have in the roadmap.”Also approved by FEC was a power project in Enugu state for N11.5 billion, awarded to Messrs Setrako Nigeria Limited.
Mohammed explained that the contract was awarded earlier to an undisclosed company which failed to deliver, hence government re-awarding the contract.
Also ratified by FEC was a financial transparency policy guidelines, expected to bring the transparency of how government revenue and account are handled.
