FG Okays $2.5m, N498.2m for Four Power projects

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

The federal government has approved a total sum of $2.54 million and N498.23 million for four power projects across the country.

This is just as it also okay the interim report on greenhouse emission reduction for the nation.

Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, and his Environment counterpart, Mohammed Abubakar, made these known Wednesday after the weekly virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House, Abuja.

Giving details of the power projects, Mamman said the FEC meeting approved four power projects including the supply and installation of motorised portable hydraulic compressor for the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in favour of Messrs Intern Equipment Nigeria Limited in the sum of US$502,950 plus N15,800,000.

“The second approval was also received for the award of the contract for the supply and delivery of three sets of online partial discharge measurement and monitoring equipment for the TCN in favour of Messrs T and D Technology Limited in the sum of US$ 874,800 offshore plus N240,100,000 onshore with a delivery period of nine months.

“The third approval was the award of the contract for the repairs of 100 MVA and four sets of 60 MVA 132 33 power transformers for TCN in favour of GT Engineering Limited in the sum of US$ 661,220 offshore and N127,758,781 onshore with a delivery period of 12 months.

“On the last one, approval was also granted for the contract for procurement of 10 sets of 330 KV and 30 sets of 133 KV circuit breaker for the TCN in favour of Horsepower Engineering Trading Limited in the sum of US$ 502,719 plus N114,571,500 with a delivery period of six months”, he said.

The FEC also Wednesday approved a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for climate change pact.

Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abubakar, said the Council ratified an anticipatory approval received from President Muhammadu Buhari on the nation’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which is part of its commitment to the climate change pact.

According to him, the contribution, which saw Nigeria agreeing to cut greenhouse gas emission by 20% as at last year and by 45% in 2030, adding that part of the obligations to the signatories of the agreement is the revision of the progress and the submission of an interim report every five years.

“The Federal Ministry of Environment presented a memo today, seeking for the ratification of an anticipatory approval that we received from Mr. President, on the submission of our primary NDC, that is the Nationally Determined Contribution.

“This is part of the commitment that Nigeria made in 2016 during the Paris Agreement; that every country, after five years, will revise the commitment the country made in cutting down emission. So, at the time we committed to reducing emission by 20%, unconditionally, meaning we can do it by ourselves. That’s by 2020. The 20% is by the year 2020. At the same time, we are also committed to reducing 45% by 2030. That’s again from the year 2016.

“So, we did the first the interim report, a country is supposed to send in an interim report to the United Nations Climate Change desk, and then before July 31st, you’ll now submit the final report. We have done that and part of this reporting is again, for every country, doing that will put the country on a good footing as far as climate change action is concerned and this has a number of sectors that we depended on to be able to reach this: Power, Agriculture, Transportation.

“These are areas that we used as part of attending to that commitment that we made and today, we have gotten the approval of the ratification following that statutory approval by Mr. President. So, Nigeria is currently in good standing, as about 100 countries have already submitted and Nigeria is one of those”, he explained.

On whether Nigeria achieved the 20% emission cut as at last year, Abubakar said “yes, we have. Since the ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2016 and even before then, government has put in a number of interventions to deal with the issue of climate change. You see, climate change did not just start in 2016. 2016 happened to be just like the culmination of the problem that showed and there’s need for an immediate action on climate change”.

He further explained: “So, the government rolled out a number of things and this was even before I became a minister and we have done so much, I can give you an example. That was when we started the issuance of green bond and bond issuance is to generate money, solely for green projects.

“Based on our calculations, we have met that 20% last year, in fact, I can even say we have surpassed that. That’s why we took that as unconditional, it’s something that we know already we can”.