The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday approved N1.4 billion for the supply of more equipment to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to boost electricity supply across the country.
Minister of Power, Mr Abubakar Aliyu, made this known when he briefed State House Correspondents on the outcome of the Council’s meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja.
Aliyu said: “I presented two memos from the Ministry of Power for the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
“The first one was a variation of the sum of a contract for 132/33 KV substation at Kafanchan, Kaduna State, with a KV line base extension at Jos substation, in Plateau State. This is in the sum of N132, 705, 861.42.”
The minister said the second approval he got was for the supply of handling equipment and operational vehicles also for the Transmission Company of Nigeria at the cost of N1.3 billion.
“The second memo was for the supply of handling equipment, haulage and operational vehicles for the TCN at N1,338,159,080.88.
“They are heavy lifting equipment that the TCN requires for doing its work in the store and on the field, while changing equipment and moving transformers.
“The Council graciously approved,” he said.
Also briefing state house correspondents after the meeting, Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, announced that the Council approved some fees for seeds production in the country.
According to him, the Council approved N400,000 per variety for private seed company and N100,000 per variety for research institutions.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, also disclosed that the Council approved an augmentation of N317.7 million for Pategi Water Supply project phase 11 in Kwara.
He said the project was initially awarded in 2018 by the Buhari administration at the cost of N3.2 billion with completion period of 74 months.
Meanwhile, as the crisis in the power sector deepens, the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET), has said it secured an additional 40MW electricity to the grid. This was part of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) aimed at closing out the PPA with Mabon Hydro Power Plant.
In a statement, Head, Public Relations, NBET, Henrietta Ighomrore, said that the decision was reached after a meeting with the representatives of distribution companies (DISCOs) across the country, and the sector regulator (NERC), as well as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
“This is timely and coming at a time when the country is in need of every available power it can generate and wheel out to the end users,” he said.