The Federal Executive Council, FEC, on Wednesday approved the purchase of medical and laboratory equipment worth ₦103.7 million for the Nigerian Ports Authority.
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja, said that government would ensure that the clinic can boast of modern equipment.
He said, “The Ministry of Transportation presented two memoranda, one of which was for medical and laboratory equipment for NPA for a total sum of ₦103.7 million for the purchase.
“The only difference is that we have to buy the one that is digital to ensure that we have more modern equipment in the hospital.
“The second one is that we awarded a contract to a consultant to help in the implementation of the international organisations for the ISO 9000 and the council approved it for us.
“The total sum is ₦238.576 million.”
Also briefing, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said the council also approved the revised cost for the completion of Mangu Water Supply project in Plateau State which was started in 2012 but had no budgetary allocation between 2014 and 2016.
Adamu described the project as one of those government considered as a medium priority after it conducted a technical audit of all abandoned and ongoing projects in water resources in mid 2016.
According to him, “The project has attained 85% completion, thanks to the effort of the contractors who have continued to work at some points without payment.
“After taking so long and in view of the inflation indices, there was a need to augment the project with ₦122.2 million to bring the project cost from ₦855.49 million to ₦977.7 million with an additional completion period of six months.
“We hope that this project will be completed soon so that it will provide the benefit it was intended for the people of Mangu in Plateau State.”
The minister said he also presented a report of the international conference on Lake Chad which took place in February.
He said, “You are aware that the conference was attended by President Muhammadu Buhari and Presidents of the member-states of Lake Chad as well as representatives from Angola and President of Gabon.
“We had over 1,200 participants. Following the conference, we have developed an action plan arising from the recommendations of the conference which we have started implementing.
“Obviously, because of the queuing process of many memos and reports, we were able to present the report to the cabinet today.”
He said there was a consensus at the conference to save Lake Chad from extinction and that the inter basin water transfer from Congo Basin is the most viable option for achieving it.
“We have an estimate of $14.5 billion,” he said.