FEC Approves N126bn For 12 Road Projects

 

 The federal government yesterday approved N126 billion for the rehabilitation and construction of 12 roads across some states of the federation.
The states include Jigawa, Kano, Enugu, Kwara, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe and Kaduna.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola disclosed this to State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by acting president Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Fashola who was joined at the FEC briefing by the ministers of Health, Isaac Adewole; Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma and senior special assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu said the road contracts spread across the country would energise the ailing economy.
Noting that massive funds would be injected into the construction sub sector, the minister said, “Council considered and approved the award of contracts for 12 roads. One of them is the Dukka Gulu road in Kano. Ohers are spread across Bauchi, Adamawa, Kwara, Gombe/Adamawa, Kano, Enugu, Kaduna, Bauchi/Gombe,
“The headline figures are in the region of N126 billion but I think that is not the story. The story really is what the award of those contracts will do to the economy. It will restore confidence to the construction industry. Contractors who have been owed for two to three years before Mr President was elected are back in various states. They have called back their workers and they are purchasing gravel and cement.”
Fashola observed that the economy was on its way back, with a bend and that this is situated in what the minister of budget and planning had said.
He continued: “In every place in all of those states, once we mobilise the contractors, the monies would be kept in those states. Most of the workers who drive the trucks, who fix the roads that you see are indigenes of those states and so they aggregate to the total output from each of those states to the national productivity and national recovery.
“What you will then see is improved journey time which was what we promised you as we cover more grounds. Wherever we have worked we have seen that you are travelling more efficiently, you are burning less fuel, you are reaching your destination quicker and as we complete those roads we can only have a more efficient economy.”
FEC also approved a new national health policy for the country.
On this note, minister of Health, Prof. Odewale explained that the policy would ensure increased budgetary provision and universal health coverage for citizens.
He observed that this was the third in the history of the country, as the first was in 1988 and the second in 2004, even as he noted that the thrust of the new policy is promoting the health of Nigerians to accelerate socio-economic development.
“Council also received the new national draft health policy 2016 today. The process of getting the policy to FEC took some time. We constituted a technical working group, chaired by minister of health Prof. Eyitayo Lambo to look into the country’s context, the challenges, what went wrong in the past and how we can reposition the health sector,” Adewole hinted.
According to him, this new policy provides a direction necessary to support the achievement of significant progress in terms of improving the performance of the national health system.
He added that the new policy also lays emphasis on primary health care as the bedrock of the country’s national health system, in addition to the provision of financial risk protection to all Nigerians, particularly the poor and vulnerable population.
“This administration is reputed for being pro-poor and we are quite committed to alleviating the problem of poor Nigerians, the vulnerable the unemployed and the disadvantaged”, he said.
On his part, the Minister of Budget disclosed that government was putting finishing touches to the economy and recovery growth plan.
According to him, when the administration came on board, it met very difficult economic circumstances and that they have been working hard to revive the conomy.
He explained: “When you talk about the plan, it is a document. What goes into the plan are things that we have been working, but we now want to put everything in a single plan. Elements of the plan are already being implemented. As you know, the 2017 budget is under the guidance of the plan.
“It is just that we want a complete document so that any stakeholder dealing with Nigeria internally and externally, there will one document that you can see anything that you want find out about what government thinking is on the economy and every aspect of it. It is all in a document.
“We started with this implementation in the 2016 budget. When the plan is launched, you will see that everything that was done in that 2016 budget will be in that plan.”
Udoma further stated that the federal government had yet to decide how much loan it will obtain from the World Bank for the 2017 budget.
The budget and planning minister said the budget figure approved by the National Assembly would determine the actual deficit that the facility is needed for.
“The figure we will borrow depends on the budget approved by the national assembly. We are waiting for the passage of the budget by the national assembly so that we will know the budget gap or the actual deficit before we can go to the World Bank for loan,” he said.
Commenting on the over subscription of Nigeria’s $1 billion Eurobond, Udoma said the development showed the world’s strong appetite for Nigeria, adding that the government had the plans to launch another savings bond.
“Because of the funding constraints, the budget has a deficit, I travelled with the minister of finance and CBN governor to market our Eurobond. As you can see, the Eurobond was oversubscribed by over 8 times, so the funds are coming in, there is more stability in the Niger-Delta so more monies are coming in.”
He also said the council was fine-tuning the economy recovery growth plan.
“A lot of inputs were made by council members and it is virtually ready for the president to launch,” he said.