Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed announced this yesterday while addressing State House Correspondents after the week’s council meeting which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He said: “The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy presented a memo, which was approved for the provision of broadband infrastructure for micro-small medium enterprises and tertiary and higher learning institutions across the six geo-political zones.
“The administration is passionate about deepening the broad band infrastructure and that contract was awarded to various companies for N16,709,853,000.
“There is another memo from the Minister of Communications seeking approval for the supply, installation and upgrading of new set of IT communications equipment and furniture for emergency communication centres all over the country, and that was awarded for the sum of N668 million.”
Mohammed also said the FEC approved N660.422 million for the procurement of 20 pick-up vans and one city bus for the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), to be supplied by Innosons Motors.
The minister said N3.992 billion was also approved by the council for the augmentation of road projects in Kwara and Niger states.
He added: “The first was a memo for the procurement of vehicles for the FRSC. That contract was in favour of Messrs Innoson Manufacturing Company at N660,422,220 and it is made up of 20 pick-up vehicles and one city bus and it’s in the spirit of encouraging our local industries that the contract was awarded to Innosons Motors.
“There was also the ratification of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Migrant Workers’ Supplementary Provision with Nigeria ratifying the 1975 Convention. That was the memo from the Minister of Labour and Employment.
“There is also the memo from the Minister of Science and Technology for the approval of the Draft National Policy on Welding. This is again to ensure that small and medium scale industries get necessary skilled labour.
“As it is today, most of our welders come from the neighbouring countries and that is the national policy to bridge that gap.
“There is a memo presented by the Minister of Works and Housing seeking approval for the revised estimated total cost of contract for the construction of Patigi-Ada Road in Kwara State and the contract is for augmentation to the total sum of N1.192 billion which will jack up the original contract from N4.3 billion to N5.5 billion.
“There was an approval for revised estimated total cost of contract for the rehabilitation of Kotangora-Rijau-Tunganmagajiya road’s Section 2, Phase One in Niger State. Here, the contractor was seeking a revised cost of N2.8 billion, taking the total contract sum to N6.5 billion,” he said.
