The Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Nigeria on Wednesday, approved the refund of N6,601,769,470. 99 billion to Plateau and Borno states as funds expended on federal roads, which fell within the period before the federal government put a stop to such interventions.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Council meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Fashola said the ministry presented two policy memoranda for the government to provide refunds to state governments for previous interventions on federal government roads, subject to the July 26, 2016 cutoff, after which reforms would no longer be eligible.

He said that the two states which had outstanding with respect to eligible roads were Plateau and Borno states and Council approved the refund of N6,601,769,470. 99 billion for Plateau State, and the sum of N3,084,787,113. 34 billion for Borno State, bringing the total approval to N9,686,556,583 billion.

The second memorandum, according to the minister, was seeking to inform Council about the commencement of a procurement process for a Central Clearing House for the operations of toll plaza concessionaires.

Fashola recalled that previous administrations had canceled the operation of toll plazas on grounds of lack of transparency, amongst other reasons, adding that the present administration has resorted to the restoration of tolling.

He said, “We presented two policy memoranda. The first was with regard to the policy of the government to provide refunds in any form to state governments for previous interventions on federal government roads, subject to the July 26, 2016 cutoff, after which reforms would no longer be eligible.

“So the two states who had outstanding with respect to eligible roads were Plateau and Borno states and Council approved the refund of N6,601,769,470. 99, in favor of Plateau State, and the sum of N3,084,787,113. 34 for Borno State”, he disclosed.

He further disclosed that his ministry sought and got the approval from Council to hire the services of a private sector operator, who would work with the federal government to build a central clearing house for the operations of toll plaza concessionaires, at his own expense, operate it, recover and then ultimately transfer back to the government.

“Two weeks ago, we also approved the full business case for the concession of nine federal roads, which will include the concessionaire’s completion of those roads and also tolling operations, ambulance services, vehicle recovery services, and so on.

“Now, this process we sought and obtained approval to start is to get a private sector operator to work with us to build a central clearing house at his own expense, operate it, recover, and then ultimately transfer back to the government.

“What a central clearing house will do is that it would synchronize interoperability between different toll systems that will be used by different concessionaires when they commence their tolls and also provide a one-stop accounting system and a single payment recovery system where everybody is paid at the end of the operations and also provide visibility for government to see what is going on in the operations of each concessionaire”, he explained

Also speaking at the briefing, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, said Council approved an N1,803,556,537 contract for the construction of a package sewage system for the authority’s head office within the Liberty Free Zone in Akwa Ibom State.

He said, “My ministry brought a memo on behalf of the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority, which is a parastatal under our ministry, as part of its responsibility of regulating and attracting foreign direct investments into the country is supervising certain oil and gas free zones in the country and one of which is the Liberty Free Zone in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State.

“To this end, they sought Council’s approval for the award of contract for the construction of a package sewage system for the authorities head office within the Liberty Free Zone in Akwa Ibom State, in the sum of N1,803,556,537.95, inclusive of 7.5% VAT, with the completion period of 10 months, without variation and Counsel graciously approved the award of the contract”, he said.

Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, disclosed that Council approved a total sum of N4,078,903,692 for three contracts in the Osun State University, Osogbo; the Federal University, Lokoja, and National Commission for Nomadic Education.

The Minister also disclosed that Council approved the memorandum that sought the takeover of the David Umahi University of Medical Sciences, Ebonyi, by the federal government, as well as the change of the name of the institution from David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences.

“We presented four memos, three of them were contracts. The first is for the construction of the Senate Building in Osun State University, in Osogbo. This is at a cost of N2,134,686,307.88, with a completion period of 76 weeks and the contractor is WAZLAF Engineering Limited.

“Second one is another Senate Building. This one is at the Federal University, Lokoja and it is at the cost of N1,607,471,754.77, with a completion period of 50 weeks the contractor for the project is Amber Bliss Nigeria Limited.

“The third one is a contract for the erection of a radio antenna for the National Commission for Nomadic Education. It is a 50 kilowatt AM radio and the contractor is ECALPEMOS Technologies Limited and the contract sum is N336,745,631.70. The completion period is 14 weeks.

“The last one is a memo for the takeover of David Umahi University of Medical Sciences, Ebonyi, by the federal government. What we brought in the memo is for Council to ratify the agreement that has been entered between the Ebonyi State government and the federal government and then to approve the renaming of the university from David Umahi University of Medical Sciences to David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences and to approve a draft bill, which has been written, and then to approve the transmittal of this bill to the National Assembly for enactment into an Act”, he said.