By BEN AGANDE

Abuja —  The Federal Executive Council, FEC, yesterday approved $3.5 million (N560 million) contract for the for construction of 100 pieces of channel marking buoys for Lagos, Warri, Port Harcourt and Calabar ports and another contract worth N900 million for land reclamation.

Minister of Transport, Senator Umar Idris who disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly meeting of FEC.

Umar explained: “Today I brought a memo to council, seeking approval on contract and council approved a contract for the construction, delivery and commissioning of 100 number R class, MDPE channel marking buoys for the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in favour of Messrs Marina Energy Limited in the sum of $3.5 million inclusive of all taxes with a completion period of 25 months”

According to the minister, flanked by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, Ministers of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Trade & Investment, Olusegun Aganga, Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, and Health Minister, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, “The scope of work in the contract shall include the construction of 100 buoys, their delivery and commissioning at Lagos, Warri, Port Harcourt and Calabar ports’ access channels. Upon completion, the buoys will help delineate channels leading to the ports and also enhance safe navigation in and out of the ports I have listed earlier on.”

On the contract for land reclamation, the Transport Minister said the contract had to do with land reclamation at Obang-Iju-Ibiro-Oba-Ojinba-Okujagu-Ama water front and bank swarms.

“Council had earlier last year, approved this contract for a sum of N7.9 billion. However, because of compelling needs and of course, the need to enhance the work, added to the recommendation by the consultants for additional work and the need to reclaim additional hectares and in some areas to put in more reinforcement on the project, the council approved augmentation in the sum of N900 million” he said.

Also speaking, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, said the International Finance Corporation, IFC, had agreed to support Nigeria’s gas pipeline infrastructure, saying that once paper works are attended to in the next six months, mobilisation and implementation of the financial support as well as project advertorial and project management support will start.

“The IFC made a great point of commending Mr. President highly for his power privatisation programme. As the chief executive officer said, it has been one of the most successful that they have seen in the world. And being the world’s super national infrastructure financing organisation, we took this commendation very seriously,” she said.