FEC approves €443.3m, $141m for fighter aircraft, ammunition

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday gave approval for the government to obtain credit facilities from financiers to facilitate the procurement of fighter aircraft and ammunition for the Nigerian Air Force.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, who briefed newsmen after the Council meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

This is just as the Council also approved the establishment of the Creative Economy Fund to ensure the deepening of the sector and the creation of jobs.

Briefing newsmen after the Council meeting, the minister, who spoke on behalf of the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said,
“From the Honourable Minister of Finance, who is away on official duty in the US, I’m going to let you know what those FEC approvals are.

“The first one is that there have been approvals for some contracts, about seven of them for the Nigerian Customs Service. The next one is that there’s an approval for an agreement for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and prevention of tax evasion and avoidance between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.

“The third one is an approval to obtain a credit facility in a sum of 443,330,781.49 euros and another 141 million US dollars from a group of financiers for the procurement of six units of M346 fighter aircraft and ammunition for the Nigerian Air Force.

“And the last one from the Federal Ministry of Finance is the approval for signing an agreement for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and the prevention of tax evasion and avoidance between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Botswana.”

Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism, and Creative Economy Hannatu Musawa told newsmen that the Council approved the establishment of a Creative Economy Development Fund.

She said, “FEC gave approval for the creation of a Creative Economy Development Fund. This is a special purpose vehicle that will allow members within the creative economy to have access to funding and use their IP as collateral in terms of monetization.

“We identified very early on that the very basic structures in order for us to really tap into the potential of the creative economy were missing.

“So, we got to work in putting up those structures. IP policy is one of those very basic structures that was missing. We are working together with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and with the Ministry of Justice to ensure that we deliver IP policy, hopefully within maximum, at the very last phase, within the next two weeks.”

“This is a special purpose vehicle that will give them funding that will allow us to leverage funding that we’re getting. We already have a commitment, for example, from Afrexim Bank that has committed to giving us $200 million and a number of other sources.

“So, this is a special purpose vehicle that will allow us to give this funding to members within the community. And hopefully, we’ll be able to really tap into the potential and reach our targets of economic expansion, creative expansion, cultural expansion, and of course, job creation, specifically for the younger demographic.”