The Nation Newspaper

Tag: SURE-P

  • Our strategy for massive job creation, by SURE-P

    Resuscitation of the defunct Public Works Department (PWD) and rehabilitation of the near-comatose rail transport system are some of the strategies employed by the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) of the Federal Government.

    Speaking in Lagos, Nse Akachukwu Nwankpo, the Special Adviser to the President of Technical Matters and Secretary, SURE-P, said others were massive investment in the provision of health infrastructure targeted, especially at reducing child/mother mortality rate, employment of midwives, completion of strategic abandoned projects and a host of others, challenging the other two tiers of government, state and local, to make the impact of the SURE-P funds allocated to them trickle down to the people.

    He said the intervention agency has done a lot considering the short time it was constituted and when it actually went out to work.

    Nwankpo said the agency, which was a child of necessity, was created as an intervention body by President Goodluck Jonathan to bring succour to the common man on the streets of the country, adding that this vision of the president stood at the centre of the choice of the agency in the choice of areas of intervention.

    According to him, in the last count, the country is littered with about 12,000 abandoned projects valued at about N7.7 trillion, adding that the agency has selected the projects that have mass-effects on the people for completion.

    He cited six major road projects being handled by the agency to include East-West road, Onitsha-Enugu raod, Port Harcourt road, Lokoja road and two others, adding that in addition to this, the agency is also supervising the completion of two key bridges-Oweto Bridge and the second Niger Bridge.

    “Maintenance of roads is an area we are working on. We are investing bringing in automatic road patchers not using spade. We are working with the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) with a view to bringing back PWD,” he said, adding that vocational centres have also been established.

    He said a total of N135 billion has so far been received by the agency, stressing that the money is not kept with any commercial bank but with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). According to him, in order to avert the drift, the sum of N70 billion has been paid based on performance of job.

    Speaking on the Second Niger Bridge for instance, he said it is going to be based on Private- Public Partnership (PPP), adding that about N5billion counterpart funding has been paid while a transaction adviser has been appointed.

  • I will not quit SURE-P job – Kolade

    I will not quit SURE-P job – Kolade

    The Chairman, Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), Dr. Christopher Kolade, said he will not quit the plum job, in spite of criticisms.

    Kolade, who made the announcement on Friday in Lagos at media luncheon, said that the committee was inaugurated to ensure better welfare for Nigerians.

    “I will continue to work for Nigerians and we will not abdicate this country to anybody and nobody will take my integrity away.

    “I will not quit, if you attack me, I will defend myself. The National Assembly and the SURE-P Committee and everybody are supposed to be working for Nigerians not individuals,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted Dr. Kolade as saying at the forum.

    Kolade said that the committee members would continue to ensure probity, transparency and accountability.

    He noted that the total budget for running SURE-P activities was one billion naira and not N2.2 billion as reported in some dailies.

    Kolade explained that N220 million was spent on secretarial activities this year out of the one billion naira allocated to the committee.

    The chairman noted that funds allocated to the committee for project execution was N180 billion, representing 42 per cent of the partial subsidy removal.

    He said that the remaining 54 per cent goes to the state and Local Governments, stressing that the Federal Government had predetermined the projects to be executed by the committee before its inauguration.

     

  • SURE-P spends N21b on East-West roads

    The Subsidy Re-investment andEmpowerment Programme (SURE-P) Committee has spent N21 billion as counterpart funds in the ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation of the East-West Road.

    A member of the SURE-P committee, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, made this known in Oron, Akwa Ibom, during an inspection of the road.

    Ohuabunwa, who was accompanied by other committee members and management staff of SURE-P inspected the 388-kilometre road that stretches from Oron in Akwa Ibom to Warri in Delta State, said the fund was part of the proactive intervention in the nation’s infrastructure.

    He said at a press conference in Oron that the SURE-P’s intervention has helped to fast-track the pace of work on the road contract awarded since 2006 and boosted the well-being of Nigerians through financial commitments.

    Ohuabunwa, who is also the Managing Director of Neimth Pharmaceuticals Plc, said the intervention was funded from the Federal Government’s savings from the partial removal of subsidy from petroleum products.

    According to him, the innovation of SURE-P intervention in the on-going massive construction and rehabilitation of the nation’s infrastructure and reactivation of social safety net remains the guaranteed funds for contractors and prompt payment for work done.

    “Our intervention approach is to assure the contractors of availability of funds to pay for completed jobs and once the certificate of job completion is generated and verified, we pay the contractors promptly.

    “We were here in August and we are here to assess the extent of work done since our last visit. From what we have seen, we shall settle the last bill that the contractors provided,” he said.

    Another member of the committee, Prof. Kunle Ade Wahab, also expressed satisfaction with the progress of work in Sections 3 and 4 of the project and charged the contractor to do more, stressing that funding was no longer an excuse for delays.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • FCT area councils share N2b revenue, SURE-P allocations

    FCT area councils share N2b revenue, SURE-P allocations

    The six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have shared N2.053 billion revenue allocation for August 2012 from the Federation Account Allocation Committee and the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).

    The allocation represents an increase of N267 million or 15 per cent over the preceding month’s figure of N1.786 billion.

    The Minister of State for the FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, who made this known during the FCT Area Councils Joint Account Allocation Committee meeting in Abuja, said the FCT Administration would next week commence biometric audit of all the workers in the Area Councils.

    “We have gone through the procurement processes and have engaged a consultant to undertake a biometric audit of all workers in the Area Councils. We want to ensure that the workers in the Area Councils are genuine and also make sure that they are qualified for the positions they are holding,” said Akinjide, who chaired the monthly FCT Area Councils Joint Account Allocation Committee meeting.

    On the revenue allocation, she explained that Value Added Tax (VAT) accounted for the lion’s share of N1.054 billion of the total allocation to the six Area Councils – Abaji, Abuja Municipal, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali.

    The FCT Area Councils had received VAT of N796.29 million for the month of July 2012.

    The minister disclosed that the statutory revenue allocation was N675.20 million, SURE-P (N113.54 million), refund by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (N23.10 million), FCT Administration’s 10 per cent Internally Generated Revenue (N145.92 million) and exchange rate gain of N41.86 million.

    Of the N2.053 billion revenue allocation, the FCTA disbursed N836.24 million to the FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) for primary school teachers in the six area councils; N95.04 million to FCT Area Councils Pension Board (ACPB) being 15 per cent pension fund as statutorily required, and N20.53 million to FCT Area Councils Service Commission being one per cent training fund, also statutorily required.

    The net revenue allocation of N1.101 billion was shared by the Area Councils, with Abuja Municipal receiving N239.46 million; Gwagwalada, N192.25 million; Bwari, N187.60 million; Abaji, N175.93 million; Kuje, N165.38 million; and Kwali, N141.24 million.