FEC ratifies Nigeria, U.S. Air Transport tie, Siemens Power project
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday approved the ratification of Air Transport Agreement between Nigeria and the United States (U.S.) as well as Siemens Power Project.
The Ministers of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and that of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this while briefing of State House correspondents at the end of the virtual Council meeting in Abuja.
According to the Minister of Information, the air transport bilateral agreement is to strengthen economic, social and cultural ties between Nigeria and the U.S.
Mohammed, who stood in for the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, said:
“The Aviation Minister presented a memo today on the approval for ratification of the air transport agreement between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the United States of America.
“The minister sought council’s approval for ratification of the air transport agreement between USA and Nigeria.
“You will recall that both United States and Nigeria are parties to the Chicago Convention on the Dec. 7, 1994. Article 6 of the convention actually urges parties to sign air services agreement with member states to improve social, political and economic ties.
“The U.S. has ratified its own and Mr President and council graciously accepted today to also ratify this agreement.
“So, today, Mr President signed valid agreement of air transport service between Nigeria and the U.S. with the attendant benefits for both countries, especially as Nigeria is working towards having its own full national airline.
“So, we will now take advantage of this air transport bilateral agreement to strengthen economic, social and cultural ties between the two countries.”
On her part, Zainab Ahmed revealed that the Council ratified Buhari’s anticipatory approval of 15.2 million euros offshore and N1.708 billion onshore as counterpart funding for the execution of Siemens Power project in the country.
She said the affected power project under the Stage One of the Presidential Power Initiative, was designed to include 23 transmission initiatives as well as 175 separate transformative projects in the electricity distribution franchises in the country.
“Today in Council, the ministers of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, and Power, Saleh Mamman, jointly presented a memo, requesting the council to ratify President Muhammadu Buhari’s anticipatory approval for the release of 15.21 million euros offshore and N1.708 billion onshore.
“This is towards the counterpart funding for the bilateral from German Consortium guaranteed by the German government through Euler Hermes to finance the implementation of the end to end grid modernization and expansion programme.
“So, today at council, we discussed the stage one of phase one of this project under presidential power initiative.
“This project is designed to include 23 transmission initiatives as well as 175 separate transformative projects in the electricity distribution franchises that we have in the country,’’ she said.
The minister stated that the project would also support the regulator, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), to transition towards a programme of improving metering in the electricity industry in the country.
“Let me remind us as citizens that Mr President and his German counterpart met in Abuja in Aug. 31, 2018 and committed to jointly increase the capacity of the Nigerian electricity grid from current capacity of 5,000 megawatts to 25,000 megawatts over a three phased programme.
“After this meeting, an MOU was executed on the July 23, 2019 between the Nigerian Government and the Siemens AG with the German Government support.
“The MOU is designed to deliver this end to end modernization programme which we are calling the presidential power initiative,’’ she further maintained.
The minister explained that the presidential power initiative was meant to address the intractable problems that have bedeviled the Nigerian power industry over a period of years.
According to her, the project will be implemented in three phases as the phase one has been approved by FEC today.
“The facility for this programme is to be sourced from the German consortium and it would be guaranteed by the German government through Euler Hermes covering 85 percent of the project cost, the highly concessional facility with two to three years moratorium, 12 years loan repayment period with an interest rate of liabor plus one per cent to liabor plus 1.2 per cent.
“And also the federal government is to provide 15 per cent counterpart funding as its contribution towards the project.
0 Comments