By Doris Ferdinand
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mohammed Bello has confirmed the completion of the procurement process for the renovation of National Assembly complex.
The Minister stated this when the the ministry had her 2021 budget defence with the House of Representatives Committee on FCT.
It will be recalled that N37 billion had been designated for the rehabilitation but the proposal met stiff objection from Nigerians who saw it as economic waste and financial recklessness by the government.
But following the revised 2020 budget occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic, the amount was whittled down to N9 billion.
“The procurement process for the Rehabilitation of the National Assembly complex with the 2020 appropriated sum of N9,250,000,000 has been processed to the Bureau of Public Procurement for appropriate certification to facilitate conclusion of the procurement process. We are engaging with the regulator to expedite the process.”
The Minister also said that the 2021 budget will give priority to completion of all ongoing projects.
“In their selection, priority of attention was accorded the completion of on-going projects. Accordingly, the entire projects in the 2021 Budgets are on-going. The funds provided for projects with serial numbers 1-6 in the table above is to achieve substantial completion of those projects.
“In the case of project with Serial Number 7, the Millennium Tower, the provision made is to achieve substantial completion of the Car Park Section such that full commercial activity could commence therein. The Authority is working on a number of hybrid financing options and strategies to complete the project which would include appropriate dose of public-private partnership”, he said.
Earlier, members of the committee had tasked the minister on the completion of the projects.
He also lamented the level of insecurity in some areas of the city where they said miscreants and criminals have taken over.
They also asked Bello to urgently address the proliferation of shanties, development of satellite towns, and transportation challenges.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the House committee, Hon. Abdulahi Garba constituted a 7-man sub panel to interface with authorities of the FCT administration and the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), over collection of tenement rate.
