By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Four projects valued at $2,541,689 and N498,230,281 have been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as presented by Power Minister Saleh Mamman to improve the generation and distribution of electricity nationwide.
Mamman announced the approval to journalists in Abuja after a virtual (FEC) meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Villa.
Other Ministers who also disclosed FEC approval of contracts are Babatunde Fashola (Works and Housing), Muhammed Mahmood (Environment), and Lai Mohammed (Information and Culture), per Vanguard.
Mamman said one of the contracts approved is for the supply and installation of a motorised portable hydraulic compressor for the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in favour of Intern Equipment Nigeria in the sum of $502,950 plus N15,800,000.
The second is for the supply and delivery of three sets of online partial discharge measurement and monitoring equipment for TCN in favour of T and D Technology in the sum of $874,800 offshore plus N240,100,000 onshore with a delivery period of nine months.
The third contract is for the repair of 100 MVA and four sets of 60 MVA 132 33 power transformers for TCN in favour of GT Engineering in the sum of $661,220 offshore and N127,758,781 onshore with a delivery period of 12 months.
The fourth is for the procurement of 10 sets of 330 KV and 30 sets of 133 KV circuit breaker for TCN in favour of Horsepower Engineering Trading in the sum of $502,719 plus N114,571,500 with a delivery period of six months.
Mahmood disclosed that the FEC ratified an anticipatory approval received from President Muhammadu Buhari for the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), part of Nigeria’s commitment to the climate change pact.
“This is part of the commitment that Nigeria made in 2016 during the Paris Agreement; that every country, after five years, will revise the commitment the country made in cutting down emission,” Mahmood said.
“So, at the time we committed to reducing emission by 20 per cent, unconditionally, meaning we can do it by ourselves. That’s by 2020. The 20 per cent is by the year 2020. At the same time, we are also committed to reducing 45 per cent by 2030. That’s again from the year 2016.
“So, we did the first the interim report, a country is supposed to send in an interim report to the United Nations Climate Change desk, and then before July 31, you’ll now submit the final report.
“We have done that and part of this reporting is again, for every country, doing that will put the country on a good footing as far as climate change action is concerned and this has a number of sectors that we depended on to be able to reach this: Power, Agriculture, Transportation.
“These are areas that we used as part of attending to that commitment that we made and today, we have gotten the approval of the ratification following that statutory approval by Mr President. So, Nigeria is currently in good standing, as about 100 countries have already submitted and Nigeria is one of those.”
Did Nigeria achieve the 20 per cent emission cut last year? Mahmood was asked.
“Yes, we have,” he replied, adding: “Since the ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2016 and even before then, the government has put in a number of interventions to deal with the issue of climate change.
“You see, climate change did not just start in 2016. 2016 happened to be just like the culmination of the problem that showed and there’s a need for immediate action on climate change.
“So, the government rolled out a number of things and this was even before I became a Minister and we have done so much, I can give you an example. That was when we started the issuance of green bonds and bond issuance is to generate money, solely for green projects.
“Based on our calculations, we have met that 20 per cent last year, in fact, I can even say we have surpassed that. That’s why we took that as unconditional, it’s something that we know already we can.”
