Be Resolute And  Business Oriented, Fashola Charges New NERC Commissioners The Minister of PowerWorks and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, has charged the newly inaugurated Commissioners of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), to be firm but fair, regulate but be business oriented, calling on them to be resolute in the discharge of  their duties. The Minister gave this charge while inaugurating the Commissioners,on Tuesday in Abuja. He stated that with the new Commissioners on board, the Ministry and the Commission will now focus rigorously on policy formulation and regulation respectively. The Minister who stated that the Commissioners were chosen as ‘’prescribed by law’’, emphasized that their appointments will ‘’provide stability in governance, regulatory actions and institutions building to the sector’’. Furthermore it will allow the Ministry to ‘’focus on policy, coordination and completion of ongoing generation and transmissions projects’’ Fashola, who used the opportunity to reiterate government’s preparedness to create an enabling environment for would be investors to operate, stated that they can now channel their requests and enquiries to the Commission for licenses to generate power, build coal, solar plant etc. Heequally appealed to youths in the Niger Delta Area to embrace peace and dialogue as he lamented that Nigeria currently lost about 3000MW due to the vandalisation of gas pipelines that provide gas to the power plants in the Country. The Minister said that with present capacity of 3500MW, the sector would have achieved 6500MW which will significantlyincreasethe quantum of electricity to Industries and Households. The Six Commissioners inaugurated by the Minister are; Engr. SanusiGarba, Prof. Frank Okafor, DafeAkpeneye. Others are, Nathan Roger Shattti, Dr. MusiliuOseni and Dr. Moses Arigu. Responding, the Vice- Chairman of the Commission, Engr. SanusiGarba, on behalf of the newly inaugurated Commissioners, commended President MuhammaduBuhari for thehonour given to them to serve the nation as well as steer the affairs of the Commission. Engr. Sanusi re-affirmed the commitment of the Commissioners in dischargingtheir duties and promised to work diligentlyandhonestly in regulating the affairs of the sector and promise not to betray the confidence charged on them. ...

FG approves construction of Ilorin-Omuaran-Kabba road; Consultancy for transmission lines. The Federal Executive Council (FEC) also on Wednesday approved the construction of the section 1 of the Ilorin-Omuaran-Kabba Road for N21 billion to link Kwara and Kogi states. The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, said that FEC also approved a N589 million consultancy for Environmental Impact Assessment on the 200 kilometre Olorunshogbo Transmission line. Fashola said the projects were consistent with the programmes of the federal government to reduce travel time and improve power supply to parts of the country.. “The second approval was for consultancy services for professionals to conduct line-route studies, Environmental Social Impact Assessment and resettlement action plan as well as environmental social management plan. “(It) is in order for us to access the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan to support the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to continue its transmission grid expansion programme.’’ The Minister said that the TCN projects cover the routes which the transmission line would pass through. He added that the 200 kilometre line would enable TCN evacuate power from the Olorunshogbo power plant to industrial clusters in Ogun and parts of Lagos state. In his briefing, the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe, said that the committee set up on the rising cost of food prices has submitted an interim report to the Council. According to him, the committee identified the causes of the rise in prices as high cost of transportation and illegal taxation by states and local governments on producers and transporters. He said that the good thing was that there was no real shortage of food, adding that Nigerians were groaning under the pain of high prices. He attributed the high cost of transportation to the complete reliance on roads for evacuation of produce coupled with high cost of diesel and difficulties of trucks to move to places at the old fares. “So we considered the following alternatives using railway wagons on the current railway networks as we did before. When we moved cattle from the North West to Lagos by rail, we brought down the costs. “We avoided the multiple taxation visited on transporters in this country by local governments, road blocks, most of them not very legal, along the high ways, which delay movement and cause damage to a lot of foods like tomatoes. “We decided to work with the state governments and the police to reduce those delays and we are going to adapt what they have in Cote D’Ivioire where trucks carrying food are given labels. “In fact in Cote D’Ivoire, they cannot be stopped for more than 10 minutes anywhere even if something serious has happened. “The security agencies will follow them to the port or to their destinations and come back to investigate whatever happens. “Finally, we shall be looking into our reserves , if the situation in the next few days persists, then we have to see what we can bring out to lower the prices. (This is) because another round of harvests would be coming up again by the end of March,"Audu Ogbe said. The Minister said there was really no starvation in the country, adding that there was also a lot of pressure on Nigerian food from West, North and Central Africa. “Our food production is very robust and we are doing pretty well,’’ he added. ...

FG to Boost Economy by Consolidating on Existing Housing Projects Across The Nation The federal government has reiterated that it will consolidate on the various existing housing projects across the nation as a way of boosting the economy and taking Nigeria out of the present economy recession. The minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, stated this while presenting the 2017 budget proposal of the Housing Sector of the ministry at the Joint Committee on Works, Power, Housing and Urban Development recently. The minister, while giving an overview of the 2016 appropriation noted that despite the delay in budget passage of 2016 coupled with the process of finalization/standardization of the prototype designs for the National Housing Projects which was concluded around December, the ministry has issued award letters to competent and successful contractors. The contractors, who have since been mobilized, have moved to their various sites to commence work. He further stated that the ministry was only able to achieve about 57 per cent of the estimated budget appropriation in 2016 due to paucity of funds and delay in releases, adding that the ministry will have done better if sufficient funds were released for designated projects. Fashola said that the country will soon begin to feel the impact as laid-off workers have been re-absorbed, more are being employed, goods and services are in exchange and the local economy of the various project locations/sites around the country are now taking shapes. While giving the broad framework of the proposal for 2017, the minister noted that the highlight of this year’s budget will focus mainly on the National Housing Programme, completion and award of new federal secretariats in some states of the federation and payment of outstanding local debt to contractors, adding that this in the overall will positively impact on the nation’s economy. The chairman, Joint committee on Works, Power and Housing Urban Development, Hon. Ahmed Babba Usman Keita thanked the minister and his team for their efforts and requested that the minister should furnish the committee with a detailed breakdown and clarifications of the proposed 2017 budget to help in facilitating necessary appropriation for the ministry. Hon. Keita also assured the minister that the committee will use every constitutional means available to it to ensure the release of adequate funds to the ministry. ...