The Nation Newspaper

Tag: completion

  • ‘Second Niger Bridge form completion in two years’

    The Second Niger Bridge project will be completed in two years, a government official said yesterday.

    “Between now and the next two years, the project will be completed,’’Innocent Alumona, the Federal Controller of Works, Anambra State, told visiting Minister of Information Alhaji Lai Mohammed .

    Alumona, who is supervising the project, said the contractor had done so much.

    “A lot of people are saying no work is being done on the Second Niger Bridge, because they have not been opportune to visit the site.

    “So much has been spent and a lot of work is being done, the Federal Government is not sleeping.

    “I am a professional, we cannot politicise the construction of the second Niger Bridge.

    “The contract was awarded in phases. Phase one to phase three had been completed and we are at phase four stage which was awarded in November 2016 with a life span of nine months.

    “The phase four, which is the piling or the foundation building with iron and concrete is expected to be completed in July (next month).

    The minister, who inspected the project at boty the Onitsha and Asaba ends, said the federal government was committed to its early completion.

    He said contract for the project was awarded in 2014 by the last administration but nothing was done until 2016 when President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration released funds for its execution.

    “We are glad we are here and we have seen the enormous works which is going on.

    “People always appreciate finished project, but before the project is finished a lot of work must have been done on the preliminary works.

    “Once the substructure is perfectly done, the superstructure will be very easy.

    “It is very convenient for naysayers to try to mislead people that nothing is being done on the second Niger Bridge.

    “But from what we have all seen today, we can see that work is ongoing every minute on the bridge.

    “One thing I can assure you is that funding will not be a problem and the government is determined to ensure we deliver the project in good time,’’ he said.

    The minister insisted that the project was dear to the heart of the government because its quick completion would completely change the socio-economic situation of the people.

    He said the secod bridge would reduce the traffic congestion on the existing Niger Bridge constructed about 53 years ago.

    “We are very keen about this project and that is why we brought you here to experience what is going on.

     

    “I am glad we are all here and that you all see that the project is ongoing and it is very dear to the heart of this government,’’ he said.

    Federal Controller of Works (South East Zone), Mr Adetunji Adeoye, said the Federal Government was financing the project with Messrs Julius Berger Plc as the contractor.

    Project Manager Patrick Hermans said 400 workers were engaged on the sites.

    Hermans said the 1.59km bridge forms part of the 11.90km length of the entire project located 1.7km downstream of the existing bridge on a new alignment.

    He explained that 310 numbers of piles had been driven underground between axis 100 and 320.

    He said preparation for reinforcement for piles and piles caps were in progress as well as production of various precast concretes, adding that the construction at east approach to the bridge was also in progress.

  • Fashola reassures on completion of Second Niger Bridge

    Federal Government has put in place workable funding mechanism to ensure completion of the Second Niger Bridge, the Minister of Works, Power and Housing Babatunde Fashola has said.

    Fashola gave the assurance yesterday when he visited the site of the project at Oko near Asaba in Delta.

    He said the modified tax credit policy, the Sukuk Intervention Fund and the Presidential Infrastructural Fund, among others, were aimed at funding infrastructure projects that would make the country globally competitive.

    “By my assessment, the piling work is now about 50 per cent.

    “At the time I resumed work at the ministry, only the bridge was designed and work had stopped but because of the commitment of the President, work has commenced.

    “For the foreseeable future, I don’t see any reason why work will stop again because funding has been provided,” he said.

    The minister said the contract for the construction of the already designed link roads from Asaba and Onitsha to the Second Niger Bridge would be awarded before the end of the year.

    Fashola said the federal government was also undertaking maintenance work at the existing Niger Bridge to ensure that it continued to serve the citizens.

    He said the ministry had received compensation claims in the realm of N3.44 billion to owners of land affected by the Second Niger Bridge project.

    “We have paid N1.8 billion. Our strategy is to pay in sections where contractors want to commence work immediately.

    “We have also received additional claim of N1.5 billion. These claims are the impediment to the entire project,” the minister said.

  • Housing units near completion in Cross River

    The first phase of housing units by the Cross River State government for displaced Bakassi people will soon be completed, Social Housing Commissioner Edem Okokon Effiom has said.

    Governor Ben Ayade, while celebrating his birthday with the displaced people last year, promised to provide them a befitting accommodation.

    Effiom, who conducted reporters round the project yesterday, hailed the quality of the houses, which are located at Ifiang Ayong.

    He said: “These buildings, as you can see, are not mere huts but two bedroom flats. They are built with state-of-the-art facilities. You cannot have social housing units in any part of the world better than these, not even in advanced countries.”

    Saying that there is provision of land in the estate for governor’s lodge, market, schools and skill acquisition centre, Effiom said: “In this first phase, there are 52 houses, out of which 36 are at the roofing level, 14 at lintel and two completed. So I can conveniently say we are at 70 per cent completion.”

    He praised Ayade for fulfilling his promise, saying the governor was seeking solution to the humanitarian crisis in Bakassi created by the international community.

    A displaced youth, Okon Effiom Archibong, who hailed the government, expressed excitement at the prospect of having a decent home.

    According to Patricia Ene Asuquo, another displaced indigene of Bakassi, Ayade is simply God-sent.

    She said: “I am happy about the project. Ayade is working. I have endorsed him for second term.”

  • Dogara urges completion of Ajaokuta Steel complex

    The Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara has called for the completion of Ajaokuta Steel Company.

    Speaking yesterday while on an oversight visit to the complex, in Ajaokuta, Kogi State, he described the non-completion of the steel company as a national embarrassment.

    The Speaker ruled out concessioning of the plant, saying that such would amount to handing over the nation’s assets to ‘asset stripers’.

    He said: “Any patriotic Nigerian that visits this plant cannot but shed tears. Any foreigner who visits this plant cannot but agree that we are from shithole country.

    “Anyone who try to re-introduce concessioning as a way forward will definitely have problem with us at the house.”

    He said whatever it would take for the plant to be brought back to life for the benefit of all Nigerians, will be done.

    “We are aware of local and international conspiracy against the plant, but we are determined to get the money from every angle to complete it.

    The Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello advocated for the deployment of recovered looted funds towards the completion of the plant.

  • Dogara seeks completion of 2nd Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

    Dogara seeks completion of 2nd Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

    House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara yesterday called for the completion of the Second Niger Bridge and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, saying that they are pivotal to national development.

    Dogara spoke while declaring open a two-day investigative hearing on the nature of the contract or concession arrangement on the projects, organised by the House Committee on Works.

    Represented by the Deputy Minority Leader, Rep. Chukwuka Onyema, Dogara said the investigative hearing became critical given that the projects were constant ugly features in national discourse.

    While stating that proactive steps must be taken to ensure early completion of the projects, the Speaker said that the projects constitute vital arterial network for the country’s road transport system.

    “They have become media sensations and highly politicized to the extent that it now seems that we are playing games with the lives of our people.

    “Past administrations have celebrated progress ostensibly made on them while achieving little or nothing in reality,’’ Dogara said.

    According to the Speaker, the House observed that contracts for the projects continued to feature in annual budgets without any seeming signs of their completion or total amount required to do so.

    “The Minister for Power, Works and Housing stated that funds for the projects in 2017 Appropriation Act were reduced, so they run the risk of becoming white elephant projects because they are not under concession or Public-Private Partnership arrangement.’’

    He added that the manner of execution of the projects was not in accordance with any defined method of projects execution.

    “The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority had spent about N18 billion on the Second Niger Bridge as the financier during their early stages.

    “As a result of these observations, the House, by resolution, urged the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to provide funds in the 2018 budget for the completion of the projects,’’ the Speaker said.

    Dogara noted that the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway had become a subject of litigations as the government vacillates between executing it through PPP arrangement and direct funding.

    “Unfortunately, the same affliction is seeping into the execution of the Second Niger Bridge.

    “If the House of Representatives, in its oversight responsibility, does not step in at this time, we run the risk of continuing this path and the rehabilitation of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will remain a mirage and the Second Niger Bridge will never get constructed,’’ Dogara said.

  • Senator assures on Lagos-Ibadan road completion

    •N20.5b in 2018 budget for dual carriageway

    The ongoing Lagos-Ibadan express road repairs will soon be completed, the senator representing Lagos West, Solomon Adeola, has said.

    Adeola assured the residents that work on the dual carriageway, being undertaken by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and Reynolds Construction Company Limited, will be completed, hopefully, in 2018.

    The assurance is coming on the heel of controversy trailing alleged reduced funding for the busy road in the 2018 budget.

    The Lagos West lawmaker noted that ample provisions (N20.5 billion) were made for the road in the 2018 budget proposal.

    A statement by his media aide, Kayode Odunaro, said the senator, who is the Chairman of Senate Committee on Local Content and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, was reacting to the recent condemnations of the Executive and the National Assembly over the reduction of a proposed N31 billion to N10 billion in the 2017 budget and the failure of a proposed virement before the presentation of the 2018 budget proposals.

    Adeola was quoted to have said that with the President’s presentation of the 2018 budget, “the issue of virement is now in abeyance with the issue still trapped in legislative process of the National Assembly”.

    He added: “Following the President’s presentation of the 2018 budget proposal, our focus is now on how to appropriate funds for the Lagos-Ibadan express dual carriageway as the virement requested by the Executive as well as supplementary budget suggested by some of us did not see the light of day with the year almost gone.”

    The senator expressed happiness that the 2018 budget proposal under consideration made ample provisions for the expressway, which serves as a major road network for economic activities in Nigeria.

    He added that efforts would be made to ensure that the provisions are passed and strict implementation enforced for the completion of the project.

    Aseola said: “In all, N20.5 billion was made for the dual carriageway in the 2018 proposal. For Section 1 of the project, N9 billion was proposed while Section 2 of the project has N11.5 billion. We will consider an increase, if possible, in view of debt from unpaid completion certificates already executed on the two sections to see contractors back to site and working fully early next year.”

  • ‘$5b Mambilla hydropower for sale on completion’

    The Federal Government may privatise the 3050 Megawatts (Mw) Mambilla Hydropower plant on completion, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said.

    Fashola, in an exclusive interview with The Nation, said the planned privatisation was in line with government’s policy of encouraging private generation capacity.

    He said: “Ultimately we will involve the private sector in the construction and management of the facility because it is consistent with the policy of private generation capacity.

    “But let me say that this is where the role of my Ministry becomes even most defined in terms of policy. Mambilla represents a policy, a policy of renewable energy using water, a policy of energy security for the country that gives us over 3,000Mw, so that we are no longer solely dependent on gas.”

    In comparism, he said: “Look at the UK, they are building a nuclear power plant that they have privatised, but government is still actively involved because they see it as energy for the future. When Mambilla is fully developed and ready, we will hand it over to the private sector,” he stated, adding that Nigeria had to fall back on its sovereign credit rating to borrow the money and deliver the power and someone can come and manage it.

    “If you look at Kainji, Jebba, Shiroro, they are big dams. It was government that built them, but they are now managed by private hands. So these are some of the things government must de-bottle in order for them to happen,” Fashola said, pointing out that if there is opportunity to do the same with solar, government will do it. If we had invested in solar 10 years ago, this is the right time to switch to solar as the rainy season is ending, where your hydro is not as prolific anymore and the sun is now prolific this is what you move to naturally.”

    Fashola also said the government will wade into improving the capacity of the distribution companies (DisCos) as the power distributors currently are behind other segments in the supply value chain.

    The minister said: “The problem with the DisCos is that they don’t have capacity to expand the way it is expected. Their challenges include exchange rate and liquidity, among others. The roll out of excellent services including metering that was expected has not happened in the way we expected it. Some have happened.

    “Second problem is that most of the equipment they bought were old enough, nobody can dispute that. Those equipment must be changed. Some of those equipment had original manufacturers’ rating on the day they bought the equipment. For example, does your 10-year old car run at the same speed after 10 years? No, those are the realities. So those equipment have been de-rated. Even in transmission, sometimes all we need to do is add a new transformer to double the capacity. Those are the things they supposed to do.

    “In the area where the equipment are not de-rated, the population has grown, more people have built houses. So they must expand, that is the problem. How do we solve the problem? We have asked the DisCos to give us the number of transformer they need and their ratings, give us the number of lines – how many kilometres, how many volts. They are doing that work now. How much does it cost? When it comes, we have to take it and ask how we fund it.

    “These are companies where the government owns 40 per cent. We will be able to know what each DisCo needs and what it costs. When we dimension that, we must know who the suppliers are, because we are not awarding contract to anybody. However, I still have to get Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) approval on this and buy everybody’s idea. That is what we must do so the DisCos will inject the additional 2000Mw we are generating into the grid,” Fashola stated.

  • Sona group’s multi-billion ethanol plant nears completion

    The Chairman of Sona Group of Industries, Mr. Arjan Mirchandani, has said that its multi-billion naira ethanol plant will be completed in about two months. When completed, the plant which is reputed to be the largest in Africa will produce 120,000 litres of ethanol daily.

    Mirchandani made the disclosure when a team from First Bank Nigeria paid the company an official visit and was  taken on an inspection tour of Sona Group’s facilities in Ota Ogun State. The team was also shown some of Sona Group’s expansion projects which are targeted at meeting growing demand in the local and export markets.

    Speaking during the inspection, Mr. Mirchandani assured that there was a big market for ethanol in Nigeria, adding that many of the multi-national companies in the food and drinks segment require the product as raw material for their production and would rather source locally instead of importing, to save cost.

    “Some of the major multinational companies in Nigeria have already shown interest in buying from us when production commences, they are impressed by our commitment to quality, and would rather patronize us instead of importing,” Mirchandani said.

    Also commenting on the project, the Group Managing Director of Sona Group of Industries, Mr. Ajai Musaddi disclosed that a third of the ethanol production will be reserved for internal consumption by the retinue of companies within the Sona family, while the rest will be sold to other companies.

    Apart from its investment in ethanol, Sona is also expanding its capacity across its subsidiaries. The group has made huge investments in human capacity development and, especially in modern technology as many of its operation are now fully automated.

    This has enabled the company to increase its production capacity significantly and it’s now a major player in the export market, which Mirchandani says hold a big opportunity for growth

    “The market is huge. We are looking into export. We can see the export is growing every day. We started with Ghana, now we export to Cameroun, Burkina faso, Gabon, Senegal, Ivory Coast,” he said.

    Sona has equally made huge inroads into the biscuit market with huge investment in technology and human capital development. The company has been able to fill some of the supply gap created by the forex crisis, which has made importation of premium biscuit from foreign markets unattractive.

    The four- man team First Bank delegation was led by Mrs. Oludolapo Adigun, Group Head, Retail Banking (Lagos& West) First Bank Lagos Mainland. And as soon as the facility tour was over, they entered into a closed door meeting with the Sona team.

  • What Oshodi‘ll look like on completion of work, by govt

    What Oshodi‘ll look like on completion of work, by govt

    For those asking what the popular Oshodi Park and market will become after the ongoing construction, the Lagos State Government yesterday gave an insight.

    Ministry of Works and Infrastructure Permanent Secretary Mr Olujimi Hotonu, said there will be a world class Central Business District (CBD) with focus on transportation, security, environment and urban renewal.

    The interchange has three-multi-storey bus terminals with waiting area, loading bays, ticketing stands, drivers lounge, parking areas, conveniences, surveillance tower and CCTV gadgets.

    Other features, Hotonu said, include accessible walkways, pedestrian bridges/sky-walks to link the three terminals, shopping malls with street lighting and a dedicated security team on ground.

    The project is being handled by Messrs Planet Projects.

    He urged motorists and other road users to strictly adhere to safety rules put in place to prevent any disaster.

    The project, he said, has reached advanced stage, adding that upon completion, the project would redefine public transportation and foster economic growth and job creation.

    Planet Projects Managing Director Biodun Otunola said over 1,000 piles (22m) and pile caps have been installed, while the three-multi-storey bus terminal buildings were at advanced stage of construction.

    He said the cars and taxis parks were ongoing with massive walkway under construction, while lighting of the entire Oshodi area was ongoing, all of which were being done by over 500 workers on site.

  • Net house nears completion  

    Net house nears completion  

    A computerised net house, measuring 53,000 square metres, believed to be the largest in sub-Saharan Africa, is at advanced stage. It is being built by Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, who is determined to reposition the state’s economic potential through agriculture.

    The plan is part of the government’s response to destruction of livelihood by Boko Haram insurgents.

    Shettima inspected the site of the fully funded government project located opposite the state university at Jimtilo, a few kilometres from Maiduguri.

    The net house is being designed as a retractable net house measuring about 53,000sqm (5.3ha).

    It possesses a dual operation drip irrigation process and a factory for production and fabrication of drip line and emitters, to ease maintenance and operation of drip systems and long term sustainability of the project.

    Adviser to the Governor on Agriculture, Ibrahim Ali, said at the site that by design, the net house was to be operated and driven by instruments of sustainability – a closed loop system that would ensure sustainability of crop production within the net house.