There are indications that the contractor which handled the second Niger Bridge will officially hand over the project to the Federal Government on May 20.

Thereafter, the government will roll out date for its commissioning.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave the information on Wednesday, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mohammed, who stood in for the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, while disclosing the information was not specific on the date for commissioning.

He said, “The second Niger Bridge is ready for commissioning. The contractor will hand it over on 20th of this month, it will be commissioned soon after.”

Meanwhile, FEC which considered over 30 memos, approved the concessioning of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano.

Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who briefed alongside his colleagues at the end of the marathon meeting, said the Abuja airport will be concessioned for 20 years while that of Kano will be concessioned for 30 years.

The aviation minister further said that the council also approved the ministry’s change of name from Federal Ministry of Aviation to Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace of Nigeria.

Sirika said council also approved the draft National Civil Aviation Policy which he said is geared towards the strengthening of the civil aviation.

Minister of State, Transportation, Ademola Adegoroye, said the council approved the development of Ondo Multipurpose Port in Ilaje, Ondo State; expansion and development of Snake Island Sea Port, Lagos, and the expansion and development of Burutu Sea Port, Delta State, through a public private partnership agreement worth $4,713,841,477.

Adegoroye explained that the Ondo port will cost the private developers the sum of $1,480,465,253 and would be concessioned for a period of 50 years with the accruals to the concessionaire and the Federal Government expected to be $50 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively.

He said the Burutu port will cost $1,285,005,818; concessioned for 40 years with the concessionaire and the Federal Government expected to reap $125 billion and $9 billion, respectively.

The Snake Island Port will gulp $974,185,203 and concessioned for 45 years with the concessionaire and the Federal Government receiving $18 billion and $5.23 billion, respectively, in accruals within the period

Gas Supply Challenges For GenCos Responsible For Power Shortages — Agba

Minister of State for Power, Jerry Agba, has explained that challenges still associated with power shortages was as a result of gas supply issues, especially with Generation Companies (GenCos).

Agba gave the explanations shortly after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He noted that negotiations were on with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd to augment gas supplies to distributors at local rate.

His comment came on the backdrop of power shortages still being experienced in the country despite billions of naira injected into the sector by the outgoing administration in few weeks.

He said with the interventions being put in place, power stability was bound to come in few days.

“You’ll agree with me that of late, we’ve had problems with gas supplies for generation companies. We just negotiated with the gas supply companies, NNPC Limited, to augment gas supplies to distributors at the going local rate.

“Gas was sold to them at export rate, whose price differs and the collection is made on domestic rates. So there was a differential and the augment, however, we had an agreement with the NNPCL and natural gas company to supply gas to GenCos commencing from last week, and they are buying at local price not at the export price.

So with that we hope in the very near future, in a week or two we should have improved generation and supply. Distribution is going to be done by DisCos which is why we are doing everything possible for transmission company to have all the equipment necessary for effective transmission. We hope and I assure you that power generation and distribution as well will improve despite the rains that have come in now,” he noted.

On the second memo presented before FEC, the minister noted that an approval was given for the award of contract for the procurement of some numbers of 33 KV circuit breakers and 120 numbers of surge arrestors for systems use for Transmission Company of Nigeria.

He assured that government was still committed to providing improved services on electricity to Nigerians.

He said, “TCN is the main body that has to do the transmission. You know generation and distribution are in private hands now, so government is only responsible for transmission. Most of the equipment have become obsolete over the years which is why you have breaking transmissions, low power outage, low power supplies and outages here and there”. (Daily Independent)

•Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed

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