The Federal Government has approved contracts worth over N26.7 billion for projects under some ministries. The decision was taken by the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday.
This was disclosed by the Ministers in charge of the ministries after the meeting.
The ministries involved are Information and Culture; Communication and Digital Economy, and Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
According to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, disclose that the council approved about N8.98 billion for a new National ICT park in the FCT to coordinate public and private ICT hubs in the country.
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He added that the federal government would soon release the timelines for the replacement of BVN with NIN in bank accounts after his meeting with the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and other relevant stakeholders.
He said, “The wisdom behind the ICT Park is for it to be a center where public and private ICT hubs are going to be coordinated by the federal government of Nigeria, where young innovators with crazy and disruptive ideas will be mentored and all what they need provided for.
“We will provide enabling environment for them to utilize and come up with disruptive technologies.
“This is the first of its kind in Nigeria, we have so many parks and hubs but they are regional. This one will be central and will be a center of job creation for our teaming youths.
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“It will be a center where technology will be developed and incubated. It will play a significant role in reducing unemployment and the reduce the gap of un-employability.
“The Federal Executive Council has approved the memo and we are going to start of establishing it in Abuja and we hope Abuja is going to be another Silicon Valley in Nigeria.”
In his own case, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, explained that the FEC gave approval for the sum of about N9.43 billion for his ministry to complete the digital switchover, which had previously missed the deadline set for implementation.
Mohammed said: “The ITU had two cut-off dates, one in 2017 another in 2020, where nations were supposed to completed their movement from analogue to digital. Regrettably, we were not able to make it. But with the approval of this memo today, we would be striving to switch from analogue to digital.
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“We will now agree on a date for a launch in the biggest cities like Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt. And we will start the switch off in the already switched on states.
“The effect of the more today is that, digital switch over is now real and the economic effect of it will be the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs in content production, channel distribution, Nollywood and Electronic appliance productions to service about 20 million Nigerian homes.”
At the end of the switch over, the Minister said the nation would have created the biggest free to air TV platform in Africa adding that he will be announcing a ministerial task force that will execute the council resolve either this week or next.
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The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said that the FEC considered and approved a memo he presented for his ministry for the implementation of Damaturu water supply scheme at the cost of N8.43 billion.
He said, “ I presented a memo for the construction of Damaturu Water Supply project in Yobe State in favour of three contractors and a total sum of N8.43 billion.”
Adamu explained that the contract for Lot A was awarded to Mallam Matari and Service Center Water Supply Project. Lot B is the construction of Water Supply at Nufakalam and Lot C Water Supply scheme at Sunsuma.
“They are all ground water or borehole projects spread over wide distance because they are covering three major cities. They will be mostly solar based and also it’s in response to the critical needs of these localities in Yobe State.
“We hope that with this intervention, the water supply within this area will be greatly enhanced. The completion period is 24 months,” he added.
What you should know
- Physically present at the meeting were Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF Boss Mustapha and Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari.
- Ministers physically present were the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, Finance, Zainab Ahmed, Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, Power, Sale Mamman, and Minister of State-Petroleum, Timipre Sylva.
- The Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan and other Ministers participated from their various offices in Abuja.
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