… Approves construction of TCN substations at Nnewi and Onitsha
Minister Of Information And Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the 2023 population and housing census earlier scheduled for 29 March has been shifted to May.
Mr Mohammed confirmed this when he briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to the minister, the decision to shift the census was necessitated by the postponement of the gubernatorial and state assembly elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from 11 March to 18 March.
Similarly, the Minister of Power, Engineer Abubakar Aliyu also said that executive council approved a memo by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for the award of contract for the variation due to price escalation of equipment, material and construction of 2 by 60 MVA three 132 33 KV substations at Nnewi and 2 by 132 KV line day extension at Onitsha substations for the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
According to him, “It is a subsisting contract, which started since 2006. And it has so far delayed due to so many reasons; lack of budgetary provision, issues that affect most of our projects like way leave that causes delay that leads to variation. It has been varied many, many times. So, recently, the TCN in their quest to complete most of the projects, especially project like this one, set up a committee and came up with the position as to how much will complete the project, and then leads to this memo coming into effect after passing all the due processes. And the approved amount for the variation is 3.7 million euro plus N1.137 billion naira. And that would escalate the subsisting amount to 5.015 million euro. The new amount now is 8,741,681 euro plus 1,449,000,000 inclusive of 7.5% VAT and the prevailing exchange rate and the completion period of 18 months. The council has graciously approved.”
