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The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, says the FCT Administration is expending N39 billion on the rehabilitation of the Abuja International Conference Centre.
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Wike disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday, when he inspected the ongoing renovation of the centre being executed by Julius Berger.
The minister recalled that President Bola Tinubu had described the centre as an eyesore when he inaugurated the sixth Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament on April 4, 2024.
He added that, thereafter, Tinubu directed that the centre should be shut down and mandated the FCTA to carry out a total rehabilitation of the conference centre.
Following the directive, Wike on April 8, 2024, ordered the suspension of all activities at the centre to enable the contractor to begin the rehabilitation.
He explained that the rehabilitation was necessary to give the country a befitting international conference centre.
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He explained that the poor state of the centre had reduced it to a mere conference centre and not an international centre.
“We are giving Nigerian the best and we thanked President Bola Tinubu for supporting the rehabilitation of the conference centre,” he said.
Wike, who said that the rehabilitation had reached between 70 and 80 per cent completion, expressed confidence that the facility would be ready for public use in May.
According to him, all the materials needed to complete the rehabilitation have been imported and are on ground.
“I am happy with what is going on. The contractor had promised to complete the renovation at the cost of N39 billion.
“I can say that they are between 70 to 80 per cent completion and they have assured us that the project would be completed and hand over to us in May.
“We are happy with the pace of work, and I am confident that in May, the centre will be one of the projects that will be inaugurated to celebrate Tinubu’s 2nd year in office.”
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