*okays multibillion Naira contracts for power transmission, transformers
By Chesa Chesa
Intent on restarting Nigeria’s industrial revolution, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved a contract of N853.25 million to engage consultants that will prepare the concessioning of Ajaokuta Steel Plant and National Iron Ore Complex, Itakpe, in Kogi State to prospective bidders.
Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, said the approval was sequel to a memo presented during the meeting by Minister of Mines and Steel Devolvement.
Mohammed said that the contract includes a Value Added Tax of 1.5 percent.
The Minister declared that with the approval of the consultancy contract, “significant steps have been made to bring the plants back to life and fast track Nigeria’s industrial revolution”.
He further explained that when the plants are fully resuscitated, Nigeria will be able to save more money, benefit from technology transfer and many other benefits that steel plants of such magnitude can bring about.
Mohammed recalled that the contract to build Ajaokuta Steel Plant was first awarded in 1979 to a Russian firm, but that contract terminated in 1996; and successive governments had tried to revive it without success.
However, Buhari’s visit to Russia in 2019 provided an opportunity to restart the process, although this was slowed down by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The FEC also approved revised fees payable for mining engineering and geoscientific services, which set benchmarks for professionals in the mining sector to enable them get fair remuneration for their services, Mohammed added.
Minister of Science and Technology, Ognonnaya Onu, who also briefed the journalists, announced FEC’s approval of Nigeria’s Revised Energy Policy (2022).
He explained that the revision if the policy became imperative to enable Nigeria take optimum advantage of all the available sources of energy in the country.
He noted that Nigeria has abundance of crude oil, fossil fuels, and variants of renewal energy (solar, hydro, wind, geothermal and biomass), in commercial quantities, and a good mix of all these will greatly improve energy supply in the country.
Equally briefing the press, Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, announced that FEC approved variation of existing contract for 132kv direct cycle transmission line from Katampe to the National Stadium in Abuja by the sum of N201.94 million.
Initial contract sum as awarded since 2010 was 8.2m euros (offshore) and N582.6 million (onshore). While the offshore cost remains the same, the onshore value of the contract has consequently been raised to N724.6 million, he explained.
The Minister further disclosed that the council approved two contracts for the procurement two sets Power transformers and the construction of a transmission line in Kebbi State.
“The second approval was for the design, manufacture and supply of two 60 MVA 132/33 KV power transformers. The cost has two components; the offshore is $1, 294, 447 then the onshore is N16, 485,000.
“The third approval is a contract to also design, construction and installation of a 260 kilometre transmission line from Birnin-Kebbi, through Zuru to Yauri in Kebbi State. Also, the cost has two components; the offshore is $25.8 million and the onshore is N10.2 billion,” he said.
