The federal government has approved the reconstruction of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway by one of the telecommunication service providers, the MTN, at the cost of over N202.8 billion under the road Infrastructure tax credit scheme.
This was sequel to the approval of a memorandum presented by the Ministry of Works and Housing to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, yesterday.
Briefing newsmen after the FEC meeting, the Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola, explained that the road project was being executed in line with the Executive Order 7 signed by the President in January, 2019.
According to him, the telecommunication giant would complete the dualisation of the 110-kilometer road.
He also revealed that the Council approved the Umuchi-Ususu-Umueme GZ Industries Road in Abia for construction by GZ Industries also under the Tax Credit Scheme at the cost of about N4.2 billion.
“So we, the Ministry of Works and Housing, presented two memoranda and they are largely Public Private Partnership (PPP) based memoranda and I will explain how.
“In 2019 January 25 specifically, you might recall that President Buhari approved Executive Order 7, which was the road infrastructure tax credit scheme, to allow private sector to invest tax liabilities in advance in infrastructure, and that policy has helped us to finance roads like or by Obajana to Kaba, Apapa-Oshodi, Oshodi-Ojota Expressway, the Bodo-Bonni expressway in Port Harcourt, about 1,000 kilometers covering 21 roads under the NNPC investment. So, there is increase optic for that policy. So, today we have two more.
“So, the first that was approved today was the one by MTN Nigeria Plc, the telecommunication company to take over and complete the ongoing Enugu-Onitsha Expressway. That road is a 110 kilometres, which is being dualised. So, you have 110 kilometers times two.
“The outstanding works aggregate to about 91 point something kilometers on both sides, if you accumulate it for those who use the road.
“You will see that the Enugu bound section has been largely completed but there’s a lot of work to be done on the Onitsha section.
“So, this policy is going to allow a steady and sustained stream of funding to completion by MTN and the amount approved is N202,887,436,672,11 billion to complete the outstanding works of an aggregate of 91.9 kilometers on both sides.
“The second memo also was under the Tax Credit Scheme and while the first one was related to the road linking Anambra and Enugu states, this one is with respect to a road in Abia state.
“Now, the road is called Umuchi -Ususu Umueme GZ Industries Road in Abia. The private sector beneficiary of the approval is a company called GZ Industries. GZ Industries manufactures aluminium cans for bottling drinks. They have a factory in Agbara in Ogun state and they have another one in Abia in this area. So, it’s a link road to their factory.
“The approval was for N4,205,454,855,26 billion. The road is a 3.7 kilometer road. So it’s an access road to their Industry. Council graciously approved both memoranda.”
The FEC meeting also approved the establishment of a fire truck maintenance and refurbishment centre to be sited in Katsina at the cost of N13,020,022,803.
This was part of the three memo presented to the Council by the Ministry of Aviation, whose minister, Senator Hadi Sirika, told newsmen that the project is important to the country.
According to him: “The second memoranda is approval for the award of contracts for the establishment of Fire Truck Maintenance and Refurbishment Center in Katsina. And this is a very critical procurement for us. It is to attend to all the issues we’re having with fire tenders all over the country.
“In the past, past governments used to ship this firefighting equipment back to Europe where they’re manufactured to get them refurbished and bring back at a cost; and of course, it takes time to do so, and export our labour on our foreign exchange.
“So, the Buhari government decided that we should establish one and that center will cater for aviation firefighting equipment, including all other firefighting equipment around the country.
“In fact, it’s not going to be limited to only firefighting. It will be for heavy duty vehicles that could be maintained and the intended purpose, as they gain experience, we go into assembly of those trucks here in Nigeria, similar to what Volkswagen and Peugeot are doing, and eventually they start to manufacture our own.
“So, the setup will be with the aim to achieve that but the first initial contract is to set it up in such a way that we’ll be doing maintenance on those equipment, and the contract sum was N7,913,949,964.
“The second contract under that is the building itself. The building of the maintenance center, which is Messrs Ingenious Nigeria Limited at the sum of 3,985,432,685.
“And the other one is the civil works around it, which went to Messrs Glovesly Pro-Project, at the cost of 1,120,640,154. 63. This is within our own threshold as a ministry. So, it didn’t come to Council but the two came and they passed on the completion period with this procurement is 12 months.”