The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has granted approval for the allocation of N4.3 billion to procure security equipment for railway stations nationwide.

The decision was made during a recent FEC meeting chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa in Abuja.

In the previous month, FEC had approved N495 million for the installation of scanners in all railway stations across the country. After the latest council meeting, Mu’azu Sambo, the Minister of Transportation, announced that three memoranda were approved.

The first memorandum pertained to the provision of security equipment for Nigerian railway stations (phase two) throughout the country.

The second memorandum focused on acquiring security equipment such as baggage scanners, walkthrough metal detectors, X-ray machines, liquid explosive detectors, narcotics cameras, and trace bomb detectors.

The contract, valued at N4.3 billion, was awarded to Messrs Advonix Services Nigeria Limited, with a completion period of 12 months.

The third memorandum concerned the Nigerian Railway Corporation’s request for a secure e-ticketing solution for the Lagos-Ibadan and Warri-Itakpe corridors.

ALSO READ: Fatal bee attack claims lives of six passengers amidst road crash

The contract for the Lagos-Ibadan corridor was awarded to Messrs Global Software Digital Solutions Limited and Datamatics Global Services Limited, while the Warri-Itakpe corridor was awarded to Messrs Fein International Consult Limited and Artificial Intelligence Technologies Limited. Both contracts were granted for a concession period of 10 years.

Additionally, the council granted approval to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to purchase two buildings in Port Harcourt and Abuja for use as a zonal office and an Abuja liaison office, respectively.

The council approved two separate contracts worth over N120 billion for the Ogoni community.

One contract is for a water project in Ogoni land, while the other is for the remediation of newly identified hydrocarbon impacted sites along the shoreline of Ogoni land.

Another significant decision was the approval of a memo for the concession of the operation and maintenance of the proposed Gurara II 300MW hydroelectric power project.

This project will be financed by a loan from China’s EXIM Bank, with a 15% equity contribution by the contractor and 50% counterpart funding by the federal government. The 30-year concession is expected to generate revenue between $800 and $900 million.