The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday in Abuja approved $370 million dollars for the development of the fourth phase of the Onne Port in Rivers.
Addressing the State House Correspondents on the outcome of the weekly FEC meeting, the Minister of Transport, Alhaji Idris Umar, said the project was awarded to Messrs Intels (Nig) Ltd.
According to the minister, the project is in furtherance of the Federal Government’s Public- Private Partnership (PPP) programme.
It will be recalled that the construction of Onne Port complex began in the early 80’s as one of the strategies to decongest the Lagos and Port Harcourt ports.
Umar said that payment for the project would be made from the proceeds collected at the port over a specific period.
“The idea of the contractor pre-funding the project is consistent with the Federal Government’s policy of encouraging Public –Private Partnership in project of this magnitude.
“I want to assure all Nigerians that the amortisation arrangement will be properly monitored by the Ministry of Transport to ensure that Government derives its maximum benefits and revenue that would accrue there from.”
The minister said that the port project was embarked upon, despite the completion of the phase three port project, due to inadequate facilities at the port to cope with the high demand of the oil and gas industry.
He said that the project would generate 2,500 jobs directly and indirectly during execution, while over 20,000 job opportunities would be created as soon as the facility became operational.
Also addressing the Correspondents, the Minister of Power, Prof. Bath Nnaji, said the Council saluted those Nigerians who embarked on peaceful protests in some parts of the country over power outages.
He attributed the drop in the electricity supply to the shortage of gas and the vandalism of PHCN equipment across the country.
He reassured Nigerians that government had put in place adequate measures to address the problem of system collapse.
“I am quite happy to report that we are back on track and our goal is to continue to increase power in the nation and stabilise power.
“You might have noticed that we no longer have the erratic fluctuation in power where we used to just, sometimes even totally lose power in the whole nation.
”We are not saying that it is totally out, but our goal is to totally eradicate system a whole collapse in this nation as we continue to grow power and we will continue to grow the power supply in the nation.”
Nnaji, who apologised to all Nigerians over the incident, restated government’s commitment to improving electricity supply in the country.