President Tinubu Directs Works Minister to Interface with Cement Manufacturers Over Increase in Price   .....Umahi re-inspects Contractor’s work on East-West Road.   President Bola Tinubu has directed an immediate interface with major cement manufacturers in the country over rising price of cement, says the Honourable Minister of Works, Sen. Engr. David Umahi, CON.   Speaking to journalists Saturday after the latest round of inspection section 3 of the ongoing rehabilitation of East-West highway, the Honourable Minister disclosed that President was seriously concerned with current situation of increase in cement prices.   Sen. Umahi observed about the current price of cement that “some are still selling sometimes, you know, 10,000 naira sometimes 12,000 naira; and so, on and so forth.” He added that “So it's not healthy for us. So, Mr. President has directed that we should interface with them, look at their problems, and then see who is, you know, ripping off Nigerians and see how we can help them, the transporters and then the manufacturers.”   “And that's what we're going to do on Monday,” in the meeting with Dangote Plc, BUA Plc, Lafarge Plc and others.   While commending the level of work on the East-West highway, he informed that “our job as a ministry is to encourage the contractor to do a good job according to design and according to the expectation of Nigerians.”   Continuing, he noted the impact of new engineers deployed by the Contractor, “he is a very well qualified, registered engineer. And we have met on other projects and technically he is very good. So, I am very happy for that.”   On the need to expedite work on the project, the Honourable Minister said “there is an increase in the number of sections that we are working on, because of how urgent this job is, we should have more sections. They have opened about five sections. We should have almost all the sections being worked upon.”   Commenting on the percentage of work done by the Contractor, the Honourable Minister said “well, we can't talk in terms of percentage. If we get all the quality jobs like this, then I'll go to sleep, because this is the major.”   According to him, “the foundation of every structure is more important than the structure itself. So, we are more interested in getting this done.   “When this is done, to lay the concrete, it's not going to be difficult at all. But this is the most difficult.”   He assured that the coming of rains should not be a stumbling block to the progress work, noting that a different design would be deployed, “and that's what we are doing in a lot of our interventions on the East-West Road.”   Sen. Umahi used the opportunity to reiterate that the tax credit scheme is still continuing saying “it is very obvious, and we've said it, you know, that the President never stopped any of the project, not NNPCL tax credits. He never.”   “In fact, he has also, based on the first module, given approval that we can review the projects,” he stressed.   The Honourable Minister however emphasized that “we are bound to review it. And we've started reviewing it. And we've reviewed this one. Fortunately for us, the contract of this one has not increased, even though we have redesigned it”.   Earlier, the Honourable Minister, Sen. Umahi attended Senator Barinada Mpigi’s thanksgiving service held in his hometown, Okoroma in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State. Senator Mpigi represents South-East senatorial zone of Rivers State in the Senate. ...

Implementation of Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit (Tax Credit) Scheme on Course The Honourable Minister of Works, His Excellency Sen Engr Nweze David Umahi CON has restated the commitment of the Federal Government in the implementation of the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit (Tax Credit) Scheme. The Honourable Minister made this clarification   in a Press briefing after a meeting he had with the Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue, (FIRS) Mr. Zacch Adedeji, FCA and the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, represented by the Chief Financial Officer, Umar Isa Ajiya in his office on 16th February 2024.   Speaking to Press men, the Hon. Minister said that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR has not only said that the implementation of the Tax Credit Scheme should continue, including private, NNPC and NLNG, but has also approved the review of the projects under the Scheme due to inflation. The Minister said that the statement of the Chairman of FIRS that the project would be completed but would not be expanded was misconstrued by some media quarters as saying that the projects under the Scheme would be stopped.  He further reiterated that the Scheme is highly beneficial and that the implementation framework is encapsulated in the Executive  Order No. 007 of 2019 of the Federal Government of Nigeria.   Part of their agreement was that " all the NNPC projects on road infrastructure as started, should not be expanded, but should continue to the tune of N2.59 trillion. It was also agreed at the beginning of this Executive Order, and it was very clear that the N2.59 trillion was not the total cost of the project. Sometimes it's about 40% funding, sometimes it's about 50% funding. So, ab initio, the cost of the project up to completion was not N2.59 trillion. Now, we have scoped the entire project and then put a review on it, and the funding gap is N2.7 trillion."   "We agreed that three of us would make a joint memo to Mr. President to suggest that the N2.7 trillion funding gap be channeled to the National Assembly for approval and then the method upon which we get the money."   While thanking the Chairman of FIRS and the GCEO NNPCL for their commitment to the Scheme, he noted some of the challenges they discussed such as the problem of methodology for programme implementation and their resolve to adopt a more robust approach to solve the problem. He also said that part of their resolution was that non-performing contracts shall be terminated.    He said "contractors should go back to site and  we are going to unequivocally terminate contracts that are not performing in the coming weeks and this we  will do definitely and we are going to encourage even the local contractors especially those who can do concrete roads to come forward and register and we patronize them".   While commending  FIRS for the funding,  he further expressed, " We are happy that this NNPCL project will be completed, we have agreed  on the private Tax Credit and he has also given a blessing  that it should not be expanded  beyond  the  last seven projects that were initiated by the last administration and that we should go ahead to review  the likes of  Dangote,  BUA, MTN and then close it." ...

Works Ministry, Engineering Bodies Resolve to Strengthen Partnership on Road Sector Development   The Federal Ministry of Works and the two foremost engineering bodies in Nigeria, Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) and the Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, (COREN) have resolved to strengthen existing partnership in the bid to work together for the realization of the Renewed Hope Agenda for the road sector.   The Honourable Minister of Works, Sen. Engr. Nweze David Umahi, CON, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Yakubu Kofamata stated this Thursday in Abuja when the Executive Committee of the NSE and COREN paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.     Speaking about the importance of the partnership between the Ministry and the engineering bodies, the Minister noted that working in synergy with relevant regulatory and professional organisations in the sector should surely impact road infrastructure development in the country.    He emphasized that the Ministry’s collaboration in the area of training and re-training of Engineers is very important as “the collaboration will enable home grown Nigerian Engineers to work for the government and for the success of Nigeria’s infrastructural development as embedded in the Renewed Hope Agenda.”   According to him “in every consultancy service that we need concerning the construction and maintenance road network, we will always request for the input, contribution and the expertise of your organisations”.   On the removal of the Federal Government funding from regulatory agencies like COREN, the Honourable Minister informed the delegation that the Ministry was working on the matter, explaining that it was indeed a government decision which was not directed at any particular agency.   Assuring on the strengthening of the existing partnership with the two bodies, he said further “I want to assure you that this Ministry will work for our common good. In fact, I want to stress that our door is open anytime for consultations.   Earlier in her remarks, the leader of the delegation and President of National Society of Engineers (NSE), Engr. Margaret Oguntala, commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the appointment of Sen. Engr. David Umahi, noting that the effect is already being seen in the road sector.   She lauded the Honourable Minister’s immediate impact on the sector through the use of professionals as consultants which she described as long overdue. Engr. Oguntala also called on the management of the Ministry to avail itself of the recently developed engineering database for professional services, stating it would assist greatly in strengthening their partnership.    In the delegation to the Ministry were Engr Margaret Oguntala, the President of NSE; Engr. Prof. Sadiq Abubakar, President of COREN; Engr. (Prof) Adisa Bello, Registrar (COREN);   Others are Engr. Joshua Egube, Engr. Valene Agberagba, Engr. Saidu Hassan, Engr. (Dr.) Halimed Adeniran, Barr. Tom Ebgele, Lawan Abdo Mariri, and Andrew Francis Onyibo. ...