The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FEC

  • No take-off date set for subsidy removal, says FEC

    No take-off date set for subsidy removal, says FEC

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) said the Federal Government, has not approved any take-off date for the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry and removal of fuel subsidy.

    The Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, made the clarification while briefing State House correspondents, after the meeting of the council, presided by President Goodluck Jonathan, in Abuja on Wednesday.

    Maku said that the meeting, the last in 2011, reviewed the conversation on the proposed deregulation and arrived at the conclusion that the president should continue with dialogue on the issue.

    He said that the council, however, maintained that given the current budgetary constraints as well as the under-development of the downstream sector, the policy was inevitable.

    ‘No take-off date has been announced but the truth of the matter is the fact that our country is in a very difficult economic position.

    “To continue to run Nigeria with one third of the budget set out to subsidise one product is absolutely a path to greater difficulties in the economy.

    “We have been talking about this because we see that every sector we opened up has produced results and this is a fact..’’

    According to the New Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the issue was beyond fuel subsidy but about further growth of the oil industry by encouraging value addition to crude oil and making the nation a hub in petrochemical business.

    “About 20 companies that have got licence and have been itching to establish refineries and related industries in Nigeria could not take off because of price control.’’

    The minister said that following the situation, prospective investors in the industry had begun to move to neighbouring countries, particularly Ghana and Niger Republic.

    He said the recently opened refinery in Niger Republic was constructed by a Chinese company, which had earlier expressed an intention to site the refinery in Nigeria.

    Maku said the Federal Government had already approved fund for the turn-around maintenance of all existing refineries in the country, noting that it would be carried out by the original builders.

    He said they had given 18 months to 24 months period to turn around the refineries for optimal production.

    The minister also said that three additional refineries would be built by the Federal Government in Kogi, Lagos and Bayelsa.

  • Presidency cancels FEC meeting

    Presidency cancels FEC meeting

    The weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council did not hold at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

    FEC is the highest Federal Executive decision-making body presided over by the President with the Vice-President, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and all the ministers in attendance.

    The Head of Service of the Federation and some presidential aides are also members of the Council.

    NAN reports that there is no official reason given by the presidency on why Wednesday’s meeting did not hold.

    Some ministers who were not aware of the development arrived at the villa before 10am, the usual commencement time of the meeting, but were turned back by protocol officials.

    With the absence of President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice-President Namadi Sambo would have presided over the meeting.

    Jonathan left Abuja on Tuesday night for London and Paris to confer with the British Prime Minister, David Cameron and the President of France, Francois Hollande on matters of vital interests to Nigeria, Britain and France.

    The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, had said in a statement on Tuesday that the president would, on his way to London, stop over in Cairo, Egypt.

    He said the President would participate in the conference of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) scheduled to open there on Wednesday.

    According to Abati, the President would also attend the launch of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Foundation in London on Friday.

    He said the president would be back in Abuja on Monday.

     

  • FEC approves N8.7b for code of conduct building

    The Federal Executive Council has approved N8.7billion for the construction of a 13- storey office headquarters for the Code of Conduct Bureau.

    Besides, another N3.028billion was approved for a new General Hospital at Gwarimpa, Federal Capital Territory.

    The Minister of State for FCT, Mrs. Olajumoke Akinjide, announced the approvals while briefing State House Correspondents on the outcome of the weekly FEC meeting, presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The contract for the code of conduct bureau headquarters initial cost was N3.51billion. The sum was however revised to N8.7billion so as to accommodate car parks in accordance to the laid down rules.

    “This building is a 13- storey building comprising of a four multi level storey car park, two of which are subterranean and two are above ground, while nine storeys are for the actual building.

    “This contract was actually originally awarded in 2010 but because of development control provision that any building in the central business district must have its own multi level car park, the designed had to be revised to put in the parking provision so the contract has now been revised.

    The project has a completion period of 36 months.

     

  • Orientation for FEC members

    President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to organise a value orientation programme for the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as a component part of his Transformation Agenda.

    NOA’s Director-General Mike Omeri said this at the start of the second phase of the Agency’s Patriotism and Ethics First Training programme organised for journalists, security officers and public servants.

    Minister of Water Resources Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, who performed the formal kick-off, said although the media is a strategic part of the Transformation Agenda, it has done little to foster unity in a nation of diverse groups.

    This, she said, necessitated the reorientation programme for the media.

    Also, a national policy on procedure for solving orientation issues in the country is in the offing.

    A three-day national summit on the formulation of national policy on orientation by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Orientation to fine tune the draft of the policy is holding in Minna, Niger State.

    The summit will consider the policy draft copy prepared by the Directorate of Research, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru.

     

  • FEC okays 44 projects for oil states

    FEC okays 44 projects for oil states

    FORTY-FOUR projects are to be implemented in the nine oil producing states by the Federal Government, Information Minister Labaran Maku announced yesterday.

    He said the projects approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its weekly meeting yesterday, would be on the development of infrastructure.

    Speaking after the meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House, the minister listed the states as: Cross River, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Imo, Abia and Ondo.

    Maku said that Council gave the approval following a memoranda presented by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) on phased development of the oil bearing states.

    He said: “These infrastructural projects cut across road construction, construction of bridges, environmental projects and a number of projects across the states of the Niger Delta, including Abia, Imo and Ondo, which are also oil producing states.

    “The Executive Council took a look at the proposal; and we believe that approving these projects will accelerate the infrastructure development of the Niger Delta region as well as other states that have always suffer degradation as a result of oil mining.’’

    Maku, who was silent on the projects’ cost implication, said they would be funded exclusively from the funds that accrue to the region through NDDC.

    He said the approval would enable the Commission to expedite action on the implementation of the projects during the dry season.

    The Council also approved N13.3 billion contract for the provision of second phase of primary engineering infrastructure ar Mbora District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The Minister of State for the FCT, Mrs Olajumoke Akinjide, said the contract involved the provision of arterial and collector roads, telecommunications, power supply, drainage works, among others.

    She said the project, to be funded from the statutory budget of the FCT, would encourage plot owners to take physical possession of their property.

    Akinjide said that the development of Mbora District, which is part of the third phase of FCT development, would help in decongesting the city centre.

    Also approved was the inclusion of military retirees and their immediate families in the National Health Insurance Scheme’s (NHIS) benefit package.

    The Federal Government approved N3.6 billion in the first year for the Defence health maintenance organisation.

    Yesterday’s approval followed the recommendation of the technical sub-committee set up by Ministry of Finance and Health to include the military retirees to boost officers’morale.

    The scheme was initiated in 2001by the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

    The committee had argued that the non-inclusion of retirees in the NHIS would negatively affect the moral and dampen the enthusiasm of those still in service with adverse security implications for the country.