The FCT Minister Malam Muhammad Bello has praised the 15 million USD Korea Model School being built along Airport Road, Abuja via bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and the Korean government.
The Minister who spoke in his office while receiving a delegation from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) led by the Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Noh Kyu-duk, said it is the largest bilateral project between the two countries.
Malam Bello noted that the school when completed would serve as a landmark and would strengthen existing a cordial relationship between Nigeria and Korea.
While assuring that his administration would strive to provide the counterpart fund as at and when due, the Minister said that the FCT Administration would give all the necessary support to make the project successful.
Malam Bello also praised KOICA for the intended capacity building programme planned for the would-be teachers in that school; saying that would surely create quality managers whose by-products would positively impact on the development of the country in the future by the time the school comes on stream in 2018.
The Minister disclosed that the FCT Administration was working at creating a special unit in his office that would communicate directly with all the multilateral agencies and countries that are doing projects on joint venture with the FCT Administration to smoothen their operations.
While noting that the geometric rise in Abuja’s population was posing serious challenges in the areas of managing the city’s traffic movements, waste disposal and electricity generation, the Minister said the Korean government could consider the possibility of investing in these areas to deepen its relationship with Nigeria.
According to the Minister, “electricity supply is a huge challenge and we need it for basic security issues like the street lights in the night, traffic lights for interchanges as well as the hospitals and so many other areas.”
“I can assure you that any project that any of the Korean companies is interested to do in Abuja to provide power, we are equally interested because power is needed now more than ever in the city for all the public facilities, we get the power from the national grid and it’s not enough.”
Speaking on public transportation in FCT, the Minister said running the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system has been quite a challenge as substantial numbers of the huge fleet of buses in the system were down and non-functional.
“We are thinking that if we can get the company that is very experienced in managing urban mass transit system that uses buses, they may want to come in and we can go into partnership,” he stressed.
His words: “We own the bus company but if we get serious investors, we can reduce the percentage of ownership because what we are interested is not to make money out of the business, but to improve the movement of the people within the city.”
Speaking earlier, the Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Noh Kyu-duk said the Korean Government would build certain parts of the Model School, while the FCT Administration will handle other parts.
Mr. Kyu-duk said the programme is so unique in a way that it would serve as landmark in educational sector between Nigeria and the Korean Republic.
The Ambassador recalled that the electricity situation in the FCT was much better some 20 years ago when KOICA first came to Abuja, but regretted that the agency is now running on generators at present to sustain its activities.
“Some of the Korean companies have good experience and technology to build this kind of power plant if the opportunity could be given to us,” he added.
The FCT Permanent Secretary, Dr. Babatope Ajakaiye and other top officials of the FCT Administration also joined the Minister to receive the Korean delegation.
