By Ahmed Idris
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved N12.15 billion revised contract for the construction of Zobe Regional Water Supply Scheme in Katsina state.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Water Resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu, at the end of the weekly FEC meeting meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the approval was in continuation of federal government’s effort to complete significant infrastructure projects it has inherited, adding that the water project was first awarded in 1992.
“The original contractor decided to quit; and in 2009, a new contractor was brought and he continued with work; brought in and imported all the key components of the work like pipes and so on and they were never paid. So, we now want to complete the project which we inherited at about 75 per cent completion.
“The FEC approved the augmentation on N12.15 billion to bring the project of a total of cost of N22.1 billion with an additional completion period of 18 months.
“One of the interesting thing about this project is that you would have noticed I said Phases 1A and Phase 2; there is a Phase 1B.
“My ministry has sought in the last three years to open collaboration with state government so that some of these projects; themselves being the direct beneficiaries, to work together to fund the project jointly,’’ he said.
The minister told journalists that the ministry had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Katsina State Government on the project, adding that the ministry also signed a similar agreement with Ogun State Government recently.
He said the Katsina State Government would commit between N7 billion and N10 billion for the Phase 1B of the project, while the ministry would work on Phase 1A and Phase 2.
