FG okays $150 million World Bank facility for polio fight

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has approved the deployment of the $150 World Bank facility for polio eradication in the country.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who was among the quartet of officials that briefed State House Correspondents on the outcome of the gathering yesterday in Abuja, made the disclosure.

According to her, the grant was to assist government as part of global efforts to achieve at least 80 per cent coverage with Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) as well as improve immunisation nationwide.

She explained that the project would be coordinated by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) in 12 states still lagging behind. They include Adamawa; Bayelsa; Gombe; Jigawa; Katsina and Kogi.

Others are Nasarawa; Niger; Plateau; Taraba and Zamfara.

Adeosun added that N8,047,425 billion contract for the supply and installation of three units of Rapiscan Mobile Cargo Scanner-Eagle M60 for the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) equally got approval.

She said the contract would include 30 months on-site service/support and maintenance, training of 120 officers and integration of the scanners into Nigeria integrated Customs Information System II.

Also, Council voted N348.594 billion for the construction of the 420.6 kilometres Awanga-Jos-Bauchi-Gombe road.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola, who stated this, added that the project involves the expansion of the current two-lane highway into a dual carriage way. He noted that the construction period was 48 months.

Similarly, FEC okayed N17 billion for the installation of technology-monitoring schemes and structures to automate fuel system management and censor network under the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF).

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said: “The narrative is that we have all struggled with this whole subsidy payment and how much is consumed in Nigeria, volumes of products moved out illegally and the whole impact on FAAC accounts.

“The President has given a very serious mandate that we ought to rein in this process.

The essence of what PEF is doing is that this will enable us track refined petroleum products’ movement from the point of letter of credit (LC) opening from the vessels that come into Nigeria, up until the point where they are discharged into tanks and then into trucks.”

He continued: “So, that will produce a 100 per cent monitoring. For the first time, we will be able to tell how much petroleum products we consume in this country.

“There has been so much going on in terms of the movement of consumption number from 30 something million litres a day to 70 million litres to 18 million litres a day during the difficult times.”

FEC equally approved the revision of contract for the construction of the Nigerian Content Development Management Board’s (NCDMB) headquarters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

It was revised to N42 billion from the N25 billion it was awarded in 2015.

Also yesterday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said Council also gave a nod for N12.4 billion to be spent on ecological projects across the federation.

They include erosion and flood control, dredging of canals in 12 states namely Anambra, Oyo, Akwa Ibom, Adamawa, Bauchi and Borno.

The rest are Jigawa, Kaduna, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The State House Phase II is one of the two projects to be carried out in Abuja.