The Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Nigeria has approved US $14.2m for the rehabilitation of Ila Orangun-Oke Ila-Ilale Aka road linking Osun to Ekiti State.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, revealed the FEC approval while briefing the State House correspondents on the outcome of the council’s meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to Lai Mohammed the rehabilitation of the 34 km road project which was started by the Osun State Government was abandoned after about 3 km work on the project.
The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Danbazau, also disclosed that the council approved US $1.6m for consultancy services for construction of technology building to accommodate data communication command and control centre for the Nigeria Immigration Service.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi, revealed that the council approved US $4.5m for the procurement and installation of 64 tonnes capacity Mobile Crane for Lokoja River Port complex as well as training of staff.
Project Advisers
Ameachi said the council also approved US $779,890 for hiring of international advisers saddled with the responsibility of advising the federal government on the financial models to be adopted while negotiating for various railways contracts.
Also read: Nigeria approves construction of roads and bridges in Nasarawa State
Nigeria’s Federal Roads Development project is to reduce passenger travel times, vehicle operating costs, and traffic related fatalities as well as helping the FGN to manage Nigeria’s federal road assets in a sustainable manner.
The government’s request, it is to restructure the project with a key focus on:
1) changes in the project roads to be financed by the credit and convert the Output and Performance Based Road Contract (OPRC) approach to conventional International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) contracting method using the Bank’s International Competitive Bidding (ICB) document.
2) changes in the institutional strengthening and policy reform component and related covenant. The current design includes setting up a road fund and a national roads board.
3) expansion in support for the road safety sub-component, to include financing of pedestrian over-bridges and traffic management, in addition to training, capacity building and goods.
4) reallocation of credit proceeds to reflect changes in project design.
5) modification of the result indicators to reflect changes in project design
