Backlists power contractor
President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the Federal Govern­ment needs about N485 tril­lion for the implementation of the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP), which is to be achieved in three phases.
Jonathan sated this in Abuja yesterday during the Fed­eral Executive Council (FEC) meeting, adding that the plan would be implemented over a period of 30 years from 2014 to 2043.
He explained that the first five years phase between now and 2018 will require $166.1 billion for implementation.
The plan will, among other things, address the lack of linkages in the infrastructure sector. It focuses on core in­frastructure, including en­ergy (power and oil and gas), transport (roads, rail, ports and airports), housing, water and Information and Communi­cation Technology. Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, the Minister of State for Power, Mohammed Wakil, alongside the Ministers of Health, Onye­buchi Chukwu, National Plan­ning, Abubakar Sulaiman and Transport, Idris Umar, recalled that Jonathan had in July 2012, approved that the National Planning Commission (NPC) coordinate the preparation of NIIMP for the country.
Other infrastructure classes include agriculture, mining, social infrastructure, vital reg­istration and security.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has blacklisted a contractor who is alleged to have abandoned an electricity project in Ebonyi State. And
to serve as deterrent to others, government has also conclud­ed plans to retrieve the 15 per cent contract sum already paid, adding that it has also blacklist­ed the directors of the company and as such cannot start up any other company in the country.
The contracting firm, Messrs Techno Electric and Engineer­ing Company, had on Decem­ber 1, 2010 collected a 15 per cent mobilisation fee from the Federal Government and later abandoned the project.
Speaking further on the abandoned power project, Wakil said government has re-awarded the contract for the engineering design, manu­facture, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of 2X60MVA, 132/33KV at Amasiri and 2X132KV Line Bays Extension at Abakaliki to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
Council approved the re-award of the contract in fa­vour of Messrs North China Power Engineering Limited and NCEP (Nig) Limited in the sum of $5,835,368.47 pay­able at the prevailing exchange rate at the time of payment plus N505,788,083.58 inclusive of N67,211,298.58 for 5 per cent contingency with a completion period of 24 months.

FG needs N485trn for implementation of infrastructure master plan