The Federal Executive Council has approved N 1.8 billion for the building of a retaining wall for a salt project in Ebonyi State.
Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite disclosed this to State House Correspondents at the end of Wednesday’s meeting of the council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the minister, the wall is to help protect the washing away of the salt, which occurs naturally.
He said the salt, if fully tapped, can be exported to earn more revenue for the country.
“We came to council for an approval because there is an intervention; direct intervention by the President for a salt project in Ebonyi State. We import our salt form abroad spending annually in the region of about $88 million.
“Now by this project, it will mitigate that. It will not satisfy local demand but at least meet some of the local demand and save us the foreign exchange. The salt is in Ebonyi State but it cannot be mined without this infrastructure that we are about to build.
“We are building a retaining wall because water comes in and washes the salt away every time., These are salt lakes that occur naturally. After the environmental impact assessment was done, the report suggested that we should build a retaining wall,” he said.
Adegbite added that the proposed wall would be 27 kilometres long and about 2.9 meters high and would be funded directly from the presidency, adding that the project will be achieved in six months.
