Nigeria’s Executive Council Approves $328.87m Railway and Road Dualisation

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who disclosed this to State House correspondents after the council meeting, explained that the project which covers 131.4 kilometres would be completed in 48 months.

According to him, “the Ministry of Works and Housing presented a memo for the dualisation of the Kano-Kazaure-Kongolam highway’s 131.4 kilometres from a single carriageway to a dual carriageway.

“So, the council approved that proposal at a cost of N115,425, 896,907.15 kobo over 48 months. The instructive thing is that the financing will be done by the Tax Credit Scheme of BUA International Limited. And they will use Messrs PW Construction Nigeria Limited, a company in which they have acquired some interest to undertake the construction.

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said his ministry presented two memos involving the contract for sundry consultancy services for the supervision of the various railway projects across the country.

He said, “Remember that we have about three railway projects that are yet to start construction and they include the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, Kano-Maradi and then the Abuja-Warri.”

Continuing, the minister said the consultancy services were approved at a total cost of $183.7m for the contractors, including GIX Engineers Infrastructure Excellence/Yaroso & Partnership Limited, Core Consulting Engineering Plc.

“That’s for Abuja to Warri. For the consultancy services for the supervision of Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Railway, with branch lines to Bonny Deep Seaport and Port Harcourt Industrial Park and then to Owerri, We have Kyari Consults SDMBHD/Jamood Global Services Limited at $97.5m. The first one is $38.4m.

“Consultancy Services for the supervision of Kano-Katsina-Jibia-Maradi rail-line was approved for Technics Engineering Architecture Marketing Nigeria Limited and that is for $47,670,000. All of them are for a period of 36 months.

“The second one is that the cabinet approved a concessionaire agreement for the Ministry of Transportation to concession the Onitsha River Port to a company called Inversal Elysium Consortium. They are to manage the river port for 30 years.”

Also speaking was the Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, who explained that the council approved an Energy Transition Plan for the country.

He explained that “This memo was presented as a plan for Nigeria to achieve net-zero carbon emission. This will clearly set out the pathway for Nigeria in achieving this.”

Ikeazor added that FEC also approved a second memo to aid the Waste Battery Management Policy for Nigeria.

According to her, the policy “will create a lot of jobs in the circular economy for Nigeria and at the same time protect the health of Nigerians to make sure that hazardous waste like waste batteries are properly disposed of with regulations, including recycling in Nigeria as well.

Ikeazor further explained that her ministry also presented a report on the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference which Nigeria attended, and the country’s plans for COP 27 going forward.

On his part, the Minister of State for Health, Olorunimbe Mamora, said the Council approved the award of contract for consultancy services to facilitate the building of the corporate headquarters of the National Health Insurance Scheme in Abuja.

He said, “The need has become inevitable to expand what is on the ground to improve the operational efficiency of that agency, which is the National Health Insurance Scheme and happily, the Council considered the memo and approved same.”