The Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, approved a contract worth N6 billion as augmentation for the Chochi irrigation project in Adamawa State.
Minister of Water Resources, Sulieman Adamu, disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the Cabinet meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“As you know the trend with us since the inception of this administration has been to lay emphasis on the completion of ongoing project that we inherited. This project started in 1988 during Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) era to provide 1,200 hectares of irrigation in Chochi in Yola, Adamawa State; unfortunately, it has suffered a lot of setbacks.
“First of all following the dissolution of PTF, it was transferred to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and was kept in the cooler for about eight years, before it finally emerged in 2006 and re-awarded to the same company Impressive Bakolori, but in subsequent years, it has suffered so many things.
“There has been a lot of encroachment in the area because it’s outside the Yola town, in between Yola and Jimiter. Buildings have sprung up, filling stations and so on and so forth. So, which of course cause is at several points to redesign the project. Now, we are poised to complete it. And one of the key issues is that the project is based on pumping.”
The Minister explained that the present high cost of diesel and foreign exchange were responsible for the review of the contract sum.
“At the time it was awarded, diesel was very cheap. But now diesel is so expensive. So, we provided a solar component to provide energy for the pumps, to irrigate the land and this is one of the reasons in addition to the variation of prices and foreign exchange fluctuation that calls for a review of this project, seeking for augmentation of about N6 billion and an extension of time to complete the project. At the same time, we felt the need for strengthening the technical, financial and managerial capacity of the company, which has dwindled over time.
“Contractors of the company have been there on the site for like 24 years and they’ve lost quite a lot of experts along the way. And therefore, we have now been able to reinforce the original contractor. Rather than terminate the contract, we feel it’s better to just continue by reinforcing the efforts of the contractor through a joint venture with another company which is a Nigerian company.
“The augmentation of N6 billion now takes the project to N11.026 billion with an additional extension period of 24 months, plus 12 months effect liability period, making a total of 36 months,” he explained.
PIAK
