The federal government has approved a power sector recovery programme for the country, to improve transparency and service delivery across the country.
Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents after Wednesday’s meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Fashola said the programme would lead to a more viable power sector for the country.
“Council today approved the implementation of the power sector recovery programme, which mainly relates to policy actions, operational and financial interventions that need to be carried out by government in order to improve service delivery and transparency as well as improve the performance of distribution companies and the transmission companies,” he said.
Fashola also announced the Council’s approval for the construction of twelve roads in various parts of the country at the cost of N80 billion naira as well as the design for two roads linking Asaba in Delta State and Onitsha, Anambra state to the 2nd Niger bridge at the cost of N150 million.
He said the design for the two roads would be completed in six months.
His counterpart, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Mr Mohammed Bello said his Ministry obtained approval for phase II of the Abuja Mass Transit System, to further boost the intra-city transportation network in the FCT.
He said: “Today we obtained Council’s approval for the award of contract for Phase II of the Abuja Mass Transit System, under Lot I B for some roads in the city centre.”
He also announced that the rail transport system in Abuja would be expanded with a support of over one billion dollars coming from the Chinese-Exim bank.
“We have realised the need to expand the rail network from Abuja to Kubwa axis. Approval was given for the purchase of workshop equipment worth $1.795 billion as you know; rail requires a lot of workshop equipment for regular maintenance. All these would be funded by the Chinese-Exim bank as part of the benefits that the country is deriving from the cordial relationship Nigeria has with the People’s Republic of China,” he said.
Mohammed Bello further told Journalists that the Council approved the completion of Apo-Karshi ring road in Abuja at the cost of N2 billion.
He said another infrastructure project that was approved by the Federal Executive Council was the continuation of the development of Jahi District Phase II within the Federal Capital Territory, to ease pressure on the Phase I of the project.
The Minister said over N19 billion would be spent on the project. – VON.
