The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FEC

  • FG rejects 165 foreigners’ citizenship applications

    FG rejects 165 foreigners’ citizenship applications

    The Federal Government has rejected 165 citizenship applications submitted by foreigners.

    The Minister of Interior, Abdulraman Danbazau, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He was with the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, and Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.

    Danbazau said out of 500 applications that were considered, 335 were recommended for citizenship approval to FEC and were approved by the Council on Wednesday.

    The 335 citizenship applications that were approved, he said, included 245 citizenship by naturalization and 90 citizenship by registration.

    He said: “The Ministry of Interior memo is about granting of citizenship to non Nigerians who applied. This is a procedure that takes a number of steps. The last time this was done was in 2013. We have some backlog of these applications.

    “Over 500 applications that we considered, out of these, 335 were recommended for citizenship and this memo was brought to council to that effect. Citizenship is either by naturalization or by registration.

    “There are 245 that applied for citizenship by naturalization and the requirements to be met are clearly stated in section 26 of the constitution.

    “Then there is citizenship by registration and that is what is popularly known as Niger-wives which is for women in foreign countries who married to Nigerian citizens. That is also clearly spelt out in section 27 of the constitution.

    “So, the requirements are there and we considered them. Those who met the requirement, the advisory council recommended citizenship and sent to council for approval.

    “So, today, FEC approved the recommendations of those who applied, 335 of them were recommended – 245 by naturalization and 90 by registration.”

     

     

  • FEC okays N1.735bn for Sabke Dam project

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved N1.735 billion for completion of the water supply project in Sabke Dam in Katsina State

    The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.

    He also disclosed that the Council considered memo for the upgrade of some software for the operations of National Pension Commission (PENCOM), and memo to provide information system for the mining sector.

    He said: “We presented two memos.  One had to do with the completion of the water supply project in Sabke Dam in Katsina State at the cost of N1.735 billion. This is an abandoned project and in line with the current government’s commitment to complete ongoing and abandoned projects as much as possible that the continuation and completion of this project was approved.

    “Council approved outlined business case for the concessioning of the Gurara 30 megawatt hydro power plant which is supposed to fit into the industrial area of Kaduna city.”

    The minister also disclosed that he inherited 117 ongoing and abandoned projects when he assumed office in November 2015.

    Adamu said he inherited debt profile of N89 billion comprising claims by contractors.

    He added that N250 billon is needed to complete the 117 ongoing projects.

     

     

  • Update: Buhari okays arms for airport security

    Update: Buhari okays arms for airport security

    President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the use of arms and ammunitions by airport security personnel across the country.

    The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the first Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of the year chaired by President Buhari.

    He was with the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau and Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina.

    He said: “We are very serious about aviation security, just last week the President approved that aviation security should bear arms. So we are trying to make them take the form and shape of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the US with K-9 dogs, handcuffs, the guards, the batons and light weapons.

    “The minister of interior is helping us in that regard with the directive of Mr. President. They are partnering with us and other stakeholders to keep our airports secure.

    “All these will be unveiled at the next stakeholders meeting.”

    He disclosed that FEC on Wednesday also approved the completion of Kaduna airport terminal building.

    According to him, the contract was first awarded in 2011 while it commenced in 2012.

    Sirika added: “During the rehabilitation of the terminal building a contractor noticed some structural damages to the building itself and then increased the scope of what to be done to put it to use and that necessitated the variation of contract sum.

    “The cost of variation is in excess of 15 percent, it had to go to the then President Goodluck Jonathan for approval anticipation, that was approved and they went to BPP.

    “So we brought it to council today to ratify and of course taking into cognizance the exchange rate and inflation that has increased the cost of completion of the terminal building.

    “Council has approved the completion of that terminal building and it will be completed in six months. The contractor has accepted to work within that six months.

    “The cost is up from N500 million plus to N1.1billion plus. This is just for the terminal buildings and not the run way.”

     

  • FG approves work on second Niger Bridge

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved continuation of work on the second Niger Bridge.

    It also approved emergency repair works on Tambruawa Bridge between Kaduna and Kano States.

    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of FEC meeting in Abuja.

    He said: “We presented from the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing two memoranda, one was first for emergency repair works of Tambuwawa Bridge between Kaduna and Kano, situated largely in Kano. Council considered and approved the emergency procurement.

    “The bridge was suffering from scrap and erosion, the parts were exposed as a result of some mining activities. We got approval for that by Council.

    “The second memo related to the continuation of work on the second Niger Bridge which is the bridge that is meant to give relief to the existing Niger Bridge and improve connectivity between the West and the East.

    “The project was conceived first as a PPP with government financing but the investors had not brought themselves, negotiations had not been concluded and it is important to continue to work there.”

     

     

  • FEC okays 5% of looted fund for whistle blowers

    FEC okays 5% of looted fund for whistle blowers

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the payment of five per cent of recovered fund to any whistle blower that uncover any fraud.

    The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adesina, briefed State House correspondents at the end of FEC meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    She was with the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed and Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, at the briefing.

    According to her, the programme is designed to encourage anyone with information about a violation, misconduct or improper activity that impacts negatively on the Nigerian people and Government to report it.

    She said: “If there is a voluntary return of stolen or concealed public funds or assets on the account of the information provided, the whistleblower may be entitled to anywhere between 2.5% (Minimum) and 5.0% (Maximum) of the total amount recovered.

    “You must have provided the government with information it does not already have and could not otherwise obtain from any other publicly available source to the government.”

    The programme, she said, will increase exposure of financial or financial related crimes, support the fight against financial crimes and corruption, improve level of public confidence in public entities, enhance transparency and accountability in the management of public funds, improve Nigeria’s Open Government Ranking and Ease of Doing Business Indicators and recovery of public funds to finance Nigeria’s infrastructural deficit.

     

     

     

     

  • FEC okays transaction parties for $1 billion Eurobond

    FEC okays transaction parties for $1 billion Eurobond

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the appointment of transaction parties for one billion dollars Eurobond issue.

    The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun briefed State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    She was in the company of Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed and Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed.

    The transaction parties, she said, included Citigroup, Standard Charted bank, Standbic IBTC, Whiten case, Banwo and Igodalo and Africa Practices communications advisers.

    She said: “The one billion Eurobond program is part of the funding for 2016 budget and we hope to be able to commence the process in January. We obtained certificate of no objection from Bpp for the appointment of those parties having undertaken fully competitive open tender process.

    “We are confident that we will be able to complete the transaction expediently with significant interest. The oil price stability obviously is helping us, currently there is quite a bit of demand for emerging markets papers,” She said.

    According to her, Nigeria’s paper is currently trading around 7 to 8 percent mark.

    The minister added: “Angola came out in November with bench UAD I.56 and Gabon in June  did 8.25 plus Ghana in September did 9.25. We are expecting to get quite a competitive pricing on the issuance program which I said is to be used for the purpose of funding capital projects in the 2016 budget within the month of January.

    “The other thing to note is that these parties that have been appointed would run any Eurobond issuance program that we do for the next three years so that we don’t have to keep on re tendering unless there is a major problem with any of them they will be our parties for the next three years,” She stated.

    The Minister of Environment said that the Council considered finalizing the amendment of the gazette for the establishment of the hydrocarbon pollution restoration process/purchase.

    The gazette, she said, is the vehicle that is supposed to have all the government structures to will allow clean up in the Niger Delta starting with Ogoni land and the implementation  of the UNEP report.

    “Why is this so important, well what we have said in the past the past gazette did not put in place some of the government structures we need such as the government board, like the board of trustees or a structure that would be held accountable for the enormous amount of money that is already available to be spend and additional monies that we can leverage from the money that we have that is being offered by different partners.

    “This now will enable us to put more structure to the board of trustees who require a legal entity to put the resources in and then we hope that in the new year we will begin to roll out, to begin with the building of the centre of excellence, the integrated soil treatment centre will also go up and then we begin training, but in this case we start training many of the women on the livelihood side in the many of the contaminated areas.

    “Of recent, you would have heard that in Ogoni land itself we have pipelines …. I’ve visited there…those that are most affected there are the women farmers. So we have to find better ways of speaking with communities but also ensuring that livelihoods of women are not affected.

    “We are also speaking to many of the young people there, we have a good feedback from those who are interested in being a part of the rollout of the clean-up Ogoni land in the new year,” She said.

  • FEC approves 38 vehicles for mines inspectorates

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the purchase of 38 patrol vehicles for Mines Inspectorates across the country at a total cost of N327 million.

    The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Kayode Fayemi, briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.

    According to him, each of the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will get one of the Nissan four-wheel patrol vehicle, while additional one will be given to Lagos State because of its size.

    He also noted that no vehicle was purchased for mines and steel inspectorate division in the last 10 years to check illegal mining activities.

    He said: “FEC approves the direct procurement of Nissan four-wheel Patrol vehicles for Mines Inspectorate division of mines and steel in the 36 states and the FCT.

    “For a decade no vehicle has been purchased for the mines and steel Inspectorate division to oversee what’s going on in our various states in artisinal and informal mining situations, surveillance of illegal mining activities taking place and the various challenges we face on the field.

    “You may have read for example even though it is not directly linked to the mining operation, what happened in Zamfara yesterday and the number of people that were killed. I mean miners that were killed by bandits operating in that area. Therefore as part of our road map, a surveillance task force has also been established with the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence, EFCC, Police and the Civil Defence.”

    The approval, Fayemi said, is also part of the government’s commitment to support made in Nigeria products.

  • FEC okays advisers on railway concessioning

    FEC okays advisers on railway concessioning

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved advisers to negotiate with General Electric (GE) towards concessioning the railway.

    Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi said this to State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Amaechi was with the Minister of Information Lai Mohammed and Minister of  Mining and Steel Development Kayode Fayemi

    He said: “For the transport sector, I’m sure you are aware of an attempt to concession the Railway to General Electric (GE). Council approved the advisers that would sit with GE as our experts to negotiate.

    “The narrow gauge railway will assist the agriculture, mines and steel development ministries in the transportation of extracted minerals. We are rehabilitating at no cost to government the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri route, which includes Port Harcourt, Aba, Umuahia, Enugu, Makurdi, Jos, Gombe, Bauchi to Borno.

    “Then Lagos to Kano will include Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan,  Ilorin, Kano, Funtua, Zaria and to Kaura Namoda – we are rehabilitating all of them.

    “It is essentially  to encourage freight movement. We have over 30 million worth of freight on the Lagos-Kano route for which presently we are moving slightly above 100 tonnes. While the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri route is currently moving nothing, but we are anticipating 11 million tonnes that can be moved from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.”

    According to him, the rehabilitation will encourage movement of cargos and passengers .

    He said GE will rehabilitate and invest on other railway infrastructure.

    “GE is proposing to manage (the railway) for 25 years  to recover their investments. Nigerian government has not agreed and that is what our advisers will sit with GE to agree,” he added.

    The advisers, he said, included African Finance Corporation (AFC).

     The council approved N30 billion intervention fund for mining exploration.

    Fayemi said the fund, to come from 1.68 per cent of the Federation Account, will focus on mining exploration.

    He said: “FEC ratified the President’s anticipatory approval for Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to qualify to access the national resources fund.

    “You will recall that in August, FEC approved the roadmap for growth and development of the mining sector.

    “In recognition of Mr. President’s campaigns promises to Nigerians  and consistent with his statements on diversification, particularly in agriculture and mining, council approved N30 billion intervention fund for the mining sector. It will be highly focused on exploration. Exploration is the heart of mining, if you don’t search, you won’t find.

    “You have heard all sorts of talks about how rich Nigeria is in mineral resources but the quantity, quality, the geological prospectivity has been a challenge because we have neglected the sector for such a long time.”

    He said there was need for investment grade geological data, if Nigeria must attract mining investment.

    According to him, smaller countries, such as Burkina Faso, spend averagely $300 million a year on exploration.

    He added: “This is why council approved this for mining and this is significant because this is the accessing of natural source development fund, which has been made 1.68 per cent of the federation account. It is an equivalent of the ecological fund and the Education Trust Fund.

    “It is meant primarily for agriculture sector, mining sector and the water resources sector. And this will cover exploration primarily but also research and development in partnership with our universities. It will also cover security and mining in partnership with the ministries of Interior and Defence and the Department of State Service (DSS) just to tackle the menace of illegal mining. It will also support small scale miners with grants,” he stated

    The council, he added, stressed the importance of inter-ministerial coordination with ministries of Transportation, Power, Works and Housing, Environment on safer mining practices and Ministry of Health  to help build a multi-sectoral focus on mining and encourage private sector investment in the sector.

    He said the government was negotiating with sovereign investment on mining to access private capital to mining and the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

    The guidelines, he said, would be ready in a month.

  • Chinese firms to invest $70bn in Nigeria’s oil sector

    The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, on Wednesday said Chinese private sector companies had pledged an additional $70 billion investment in the Nigerian economy.

    Kachikwu said this while addressing State House correspondents on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    He said the Council was briefed on the outcome of the ministry’s China roadshow held in January.

    He said the $70 billion pledges were different from the ones  made  to President Buhari during his earlier visit to the Asian nation.

    The minister added that the ministry’s investment target in China was initially to raise $40 billion, which was the total cost of the nation’s infrastructure gap for the oil industry.

    He said the China roadshow, however, raised pledges of over $70 billion for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and government potential investments and loans facility.

  • FEC approves N4.5bn for prisons vehicles, transformers

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the purchase of 320 prisons operational vehicles at a cost of N3.5 billion.

    It also approved the purchase of three transformers of 150 MVA‎ to be installed in power sub-stations at Kumbotso (Kano), Shiroro (Niger), and Oshogbo (Osun) at a cost of N1 billion.

    The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazzau, and his Power, Works and Housing counterpart, Babatunde Fashola, briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Also at the briefing were the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu.

    Dambazzau said the vehicles are to convey inmates to courts in order to speed up trial, adding that awaiting trial inmates constituted 70 per cent of the 65,000 prison population.

    He said: “In our efforts to strengthen criminal justice system and also contribute towards decongesting the system, we presented a memo for the procurement of 320 operational vehicles for the prison service at the cost of N3.5 billion.

    “This procurement is from local manufacturers, assemblies and vendors within Nigeria and the effort is to follow through government policy in ensuring that most of the procurement of equipment and such vehicles are done locally. That will also provide opportunity for job creation and things like that.”