The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday gave the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited the approval to invest N1.9 trillion on the reconstruction of 44 federal roads.
The council gave the approval at its meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The vice president’s spokesperson, Laolu Akande, made this disclosure while speaking to State House correspondents on behalf of the Minister of Works and Housing after the meeting.
Mr Akande noted that FEC approved the recommendation to invest in the reconstruction of selected federal roads under the federal government’s Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Policy phase 2 by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited and its subsidiaries.
“So, the council approved the proposal by the Ministry of Works and Housing for the reconstruction of 44 proposed federal roads with a total length of 4,554 kilometres in the total sum of N1.9 trillion,’’ he said.
He noted that the council also approved the concession of nine federal roads, spread across different parts of the country.
In 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari signed executive order No. 7 on the road infrastructure development and refurbishment investment tax credit scheme. The scheme enables the federal government to leverage private-sector capital and efficiency for the construction, refurbishment and maintenance of critical road infrastructure in key economic areas in the country.
On Wednesday, Mr Akande said following the issuance of requisite Full Business Case (FBC) compliance certificates by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRCN), FEC also approved a 25-year concessions for nine road corridors under the pilot phase of the highway development and management initiative.
“The roads that will be under this first phase are the Benin-Asaba corridor, Abuja-Lokoja-Onitsha-Owerri-Aba-Shagamu-to Benin, Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi, Kano-Maiduguri, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta, and Lagos-Badagry-Seme,” he said.
Mr Akande added that the works and housing ministry also got the council’s approval for the augmentation of contract for the rehabilitation of the Oshogbo-Ilesha road, phase one, in Ilesha-Oshogbo, Osun state.
The contract was awarded to Messers Orizon construction company in the sum of N1.2 billion, he explained, adding that the subsisting contract sum was revised from N3 billion to N4 billion, representing an increase of 33 percent from the original sum.
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