The Federal Executive Council has approved N16 Billion for the dualization of the Kano-Katsina road in Northern Nigeria.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed revealed this while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.
“On behalf of the Minister of Works and Housing a memo that sought the council’s approval for the revised total costs of contract for the dualization of Kano-Katsina road, linking Kano and Katsina states was approved.
“This contract, which is 78 kilometers, was actually awarded sometime in 2019, but the contractor, having done appreciable work, asked us for a review of the quality of engineering and the contract deal was augmented with the sum of N16 billion, thereby revising the subsisting contract from N29 billion to N46 billion.”
NDLEA Vehicles
The Minister also informed Journalists that over N800 million was approved for the procurement of 32 operational vehicles for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
“The final memo, which I’m presenting on behalf of the Attorney-General, is the one which the Council approved for the NDLEA to purchase some 32 operational vehicles to enhance their operations. I’m sure we’ve all noticed that there has been an improved performance on the part of NDLEA in the last couple of months and because of this enhanced performance, there has been a need for more operational vehicles.
“The good thing about the request is that all the operational vehicles are being bought from locally assembling plants here in Nigeria. The total cost is N821, 653, 000,” Mohammed added.
Mines Policy
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, who also addressed State House Correspondents, disclosed that the cabinet approved the Nigeria Mining Chain Revolution Policy.
He said the new policy will reduce the exportation of raw ore from Nigeria in order to enjoy the value chain of the product here in Nigeria.
“The ministry was able to pass a memo in Council today, it’s essentially on a policy drive that was initiated by this administration and that is what we call Downstream Policy. Essentially, it’s to prevent us exporting raw ores from Nigeria so that we must have some beneficiation before minerals are exported.
“So, whatever you mined, even if you are unable, as the miner to process, we’re inviting investors, we’re having people who build processing plants, they themselves don’t have to be miners, but they’ll be processors who can take the ores from anybody and process before we export
“Essentially, the policy was passed today so that we’ll discourage the exportation of raw ore from Nigeria. The Nigerian government, this government of President Buhari, post-COVID, granted some funds and this font is being used as demonstration projects for this mineral processing policy,” the Minister explained.
PIAK
