In the News:
NIGERIAN DREDGING & TRANSPORTATION DIGEST
FG may concession Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
There are media reports of a plan by the Federal Government to concession the rehabilitation and upgrade of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. According to these reports, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited would be the successful concessionaire. It will repair and expand the road and add more lanes on both sides.
Under the proposed concession plan, BSL will build eateries and hospitals, as well as provide security lighting and towing services along the road. Although the usual practice is for concessionaires to collect tolls to recover their investment, it was not immediately made known how many years BSL would be given to do this.
The plan if successful will signal a shift in government’s preferred financing plan for infrastructure upgrades and repairs in the country following what former Transportation Minister, Mrs Diezani Maduekwe noted last year that, “We have had to come out with the privatisation of roads due to lack of funds. We don’t have infinite funds. We have to privatise very carefully our major access roads, trunk A roads, around the country.”
To date only the Lagos State government is blazing the trail with road concessioning. It granted concession to The Lekki Concession Company to repair and upgrade the Lekki Expressway from Victoria Island to Epe to and to build toll gates for the recouping of its investment. Only a small fraction of the project has been completed and put to use, mainly in Victoria Island in Lagos.
Ministry Reclaims 5 Mine Sites
The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has said in Abuja that it has reclaimed five abandoned mine sites nationwide.
Chief Press Secretary in the Ministry, Mr Clinton Oni, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that only five of the 1,218 abandoned mines and quarry sites had been reclaimed, including Eyimgba II, III, IV in Ebonyi, and sites I and II in Edo.
He said the World Bank was partnering with the ministry through its Sustainable Management of Mineral Resources Project, to reclaim four other sites located in Dorowa Bukuru and Kwata, both in Plateau.
However, stakeholders have expressed concern overpits left open after mining.National President, Miners Association of Nigeria, Mr Sunday Ekosin, said such pits had negative environmental impact on the host communities. Ekosin, who said mine closure was a vital aspect of mining activities, urged the ministry to clamp down on offenders.
Alhaji Hassan Baba, a miner from Nasarawa, said open mine pits were death traps for children and farmers who work around them.
He said such pits could claim lives if not covered, and urged the ministry to lay more emphasis on closure of pits.
NAN reports that 37 chairmen were appointed in August 2008,to head state's Mineral Resources and Environmental Compliance Committees, in a bid to address environmentalissues resulting from mining.
FG to concession 17 roads, bridges
The Federal Government plans to concession the reconstruction, rehabilitation and maintenance of a new Lagos-Abuja road, the Second Niger Bridge and 15 other major roads and bridges to private firms.
According to some media reports, the proposed Lagos-Abuja road, which is expected to cater for an average daily traffic of 25,000 motorists, has a length of 500 kilometres, while the Second Niger Bridge has six-lanes, three on each way will stretch 1.78 kilometres with an average traffic of 12,000 vehicles daily.
As at January, the government was said to have received expressions of interest from several private investors on Lagos-Badagry-Seme border Road, Sagamu-Benin-Asaba Road and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano dual carriageway concession.
Other federal roads said to be in the plan include the Enugu-Onitsha-Benin, Port Harcourt-Enugu, Lokoja-Abuja and Benin-Auchi-Lokoja, the construction of Kaduna Eastern Bypass, upgrading and reconstruction of Kano-Wudil-Potiskum road and construction of single carriageway along Lokoja-Itobe-Idah-Otuocha-Abagana-Nnobi axis and some others.
FG suspends 5% excise duty on manufactured goods
The Federal Government said it would suspend the imposition of five per cent excise duty imposed on some goods manufactured in the country, according to Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola.. The duty, which was to have come into effect on October 1, 2008 was to cover a range of products including juices, instant noodles and non alcoholic drinks.
Babalola said this on Thursday in Abuja when he hosted a delegation of the Association of Foods, Beverages and Tobacco Employees led by its president, Chief Emmanuel Ukpabi. The minister said the economy and manufacturers were going through turbulent times and the responsibility of the government was to remove impediments to their well-being.
Making a case for the removal of the tax on the products, Ukpabi said food and the non-alcoholic sub-sector contribute an annual turnover of N387bn to the nation’s economy accounting for 27 per cent of all goods manufactured in the country.
He added that the sub-sector makes a direct contribution of N34.6bn to government coffers in corporate tax and Value Added Tax and another N60bn indirectly through transportation, raw material and packaging industries.
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