FG Approves N202.8bn Repairs of Enugu-Onitsha Road By MTN Under Tax Credit Scheme

•Okays N13bn fire truck maintenance center for Katsina

•Police Trust Fund gets N4.5bn for vehicle supply, insurance, N592m MRI equipment for OAUTH

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

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.”

Wednesday’s 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.”

Sirika added that FEC also approved the full business case for the establishment of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility for the Ministry of Aviation despite the availability of the facility under some private operators in the country.

According to him, the new one was necessary because the existing facilities are limited in capacity.

He stated: “The second memoranda is approval of the business case, full business case. Now this is a roadmap item for the Ministry of Aviation. We seek to establish a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility where aircrafts will be maintained here in the country, and will be a departure from the former where aircrafts are flown to Europe, to America or to the far East for maintenance. In this particular case, we will be doing the maintenance here when it’s established.

“There’s a lot of debates. People have said, we have Messrs Aero Contractors, we have Arik, have others that are having the MROs. Well, those MROs, Yes, but they are not to the size and to the level that we envisaged. “Those are doing small single aisle airplanes, but this one is going to go the whole hog; it’s going to be a full center for full ABC and D Checks on wide body multiple aisle, high capacity airplanes within the country.

“This will stop us from exporting our labour, our foreign exchange and will transfer technology and then of course, begin the future to put together a manufactured certain parts of aircrafts and of course, aircraft itself.

“So, this business case is for 30 years and the company or the group that won the contract is Messrs AGW and they came in a consortium with NAYAK Aircraft Services and Messrs Glovesly Pro-Project Limited and they will be paying a fixed fee of sum of $30,000 in the first year, with annual escalation rate of three per cent payable annually in advance and other fees that are variable.

“Zero to five years- one per cent; 6-10 years 1.5 per cent; 11-15 years, two and a half per cent; 16-20 years, five per cent and 21-30 year, 12 and half percent.

“The total amount of money they will pay the federal government is $185,750,000. This is a fixed fee of about $1.4 million, variable fees of $51.1 million; land rent $6.82 million and corporate taxes $136 million.”

The FEC also approved the award of contract for the Nigeria Police Trust Fund for the supply of vehicles and insurance cover for other vehicles at a total cost of N4,541,829,704.17.

The Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, who briefed the media on this, gave the specification of the contract as Toyota Landcruisers, Toyota Prado 2021 model and Toyota Camry.

According to him, the vehicles are to be used for tactical operations to achieve, “the vision and strategic deployment in a bid to strategize for better security networking, as well as aid strategic deployment of technical squads to tackle insecurity across the country.”

He said insurance was intended to cover all the 450 vehicles purchased by the Police Trust Fund between 2020 and 2022.

The Council similarly approved a total sum of N592, 271, 792.48 for the procurement of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) equipment for the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), Ile-Ife,

Minister of State for Health, Ekumankama Joseph, who briefed newsmen about this, noted that the procurement became necessary because of poor services to patients suffering from ailments requiring thorough diagnosis.

He explained that the teaching hospital has only one 0.2 Tesla MRI equipment, which is now obsolete, saying: “So, we have been having challenges of giving the very best of health services to people, patients who come to the hospital for diagnostic services and treatment.

“So, today FEC in its wisdom approved for procurement and supply of one unit A 1.5 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine, and other accessories for the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife in favour of Messrs CG Gasta Company Limited in the sum of N592,271,792.48. This is inclusive of 7.5 per cent VAT with a delivery period of six months.

“With the procurement of this equipment, it is strongly believed that most patients that usually travel to Lagos or other surrounding environment close to Ile-Ife, to seek for better medical services, will now be able to have the comfort and leisure of staying back in Ife to get the medical services they need in terms of diagnosis and treatment at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital.”

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, who briefed newsmen on behalf of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said the Council ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 181.

The ratification of the convention, he explained, was to protect the right of the people as government would want all employees to be treated with dignity.

Shehu added that the FEC also approved

the adoption of revised National Policy on Labour Migration and its action plan.which was to also ensure the protection of the dignity of Nigerians.

According to him: “Nigerian government is interested in protecting migrant workers who are here with us and our people who go out there. They shouldn’t be treated like slaves and just anyhow, discriminated against in so many respects.

“Certainly, this is a policy that is coming, as the memo said, to confront the challenges of illegal migration, illegal employment, exploitative policy processes, forced labour, smuggling and human trafficking in our society and entrenching general obligation to respect basic human rights.”