N16bn NDDC headquarters rising up in 52 weeks in Port Harcourt—Minister
The Federal Executive Council presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday, gave approval for the erection of permanent headquarters of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Briefing State House Correspondents after the meeting, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Uguru revealed that Council approved the sum of N16bn for the project, but he was silent on whether the funding is contained in the running 2017 budget or where the funding will come from.
But feelers are rife that the fund may come from the N750bn planned for release before the end of this week.
The Minister of Finance had last week hinted that federal government will this week release the second tranche of capital projects funding valued at N750bn this week to rejig the economy and fast track several pending projects. The fund will raise total releases for the 2017 budget to N1.2tn, having released N450bn earlier in the year.
The Minister, however failed to explain whether a contractor had been selected for the project during the briefing, even though the scheme was not contained in the latest publication of the Federal government’s tenders magazine which carries all approved projects due for bidding on a monthly basis.
