Deji Elumoye in Abuja
The federal government has approved the total sum of $2,541,689 and N498,230,281 for four power projects across the country.
This is just as it also approved the interim report on greenhouse emission reduction for the country.
Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, and his Environment counterpart, Mohammed Abubakar, made these known yesterday after the weekly virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House in Abuja.
Giving details of the power projects, Mamman said the FEC meeting approved four power projects, including the supply and installation of motorised portable hydraulic compressor for the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in favour of Messrs Intern Equipment Nigeria Limited in the sum of US$502,950 plus N15.8 million.
The minister said: “The second approval was also received for the award of the contract for the supply and delivery of three sets of online partial discharge measurement and monitoring equipment for the TCN in favour of Messrs T and D Technology Limited with the sum of US$ 874,800 offshore plus N240,100,000 onshore with a delivery period of nine months.
“The third approval was the award of the contract for the repairs of 100 MVA and four sets of 60 MVA 132 33 power transformers for TCN in favour of GT Engineering Limited in the sum of US$ 661,220 offshore and N127,758,781 onshore with a delivery period of 12 months.
“On the last one, approval was also granted for the contract for procurement of 10 sets of 330 KV and 30 sets of 133 KV circuit breaker for the TCN in favour of Horsepower Engineering Trading Limited in the sum of US$ 502,719 plus N114, 571,500 with a delivery period of six months.” The FEC also approved a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for climate change pact.
The Minister of Environment, Abubakar, said the FEC ratified an anticipatory approval received from President Muhammadu Buhari on the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which is part of its commitment to the climate change pact.
According to him, the contribution saw Nigeria agreeing to cut greenhouse gas emission by 20 percent as at last year and by 45 percent in 2030, adding that part of the obligations to the signatories of the agreement is the revision of the progress and the submission of an interim report every five years.
The minister explained that: “The Federal Ministry of Environment presented a memo today (yesterday), seeking the ratification of an anticipatory approval that we received from the president on the submission of our primary Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
“This is part of the commitment that Nigeria made in 2016 during the Paris Agreement ‘that every country, after five years, will revise the commitment the country made in cutting down emission’. So, at the time we committed to reducing emission by 20 percent unconditionally, meaning we can do it by ourselves. That’s by 2020. The 20 percent is by the year 2020. At the same time, we are also committed to reducing 45 percent by 2030. That’s again from the year 2016.
“So, we did the first interim report, which a country is supposed to send in an interim report to the United Nations Climate Change desk, and then before July 31, you would submit the final report. We have done that and part of this reporting is for every country, doing that will put the country on a good footing as far as climate change action is concerned, and this has a number of sectors that we depended on to be able to reach this-power, agriculture, transportation.
“These are areas that we used as part to attend to that commitment that we made, and today, we have gotten the approval of the ratification following that statutory approval by the president. So, Nigeria is currently in good standing, as about 100 countries have already submitted, and Nigeria is one of those.”
On whether Nigeria has achieved the 20 percent emission cut as at last year, Abubakar said: “Yes, we have. Since the ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2016 and even before then, the government has put in a number of interventions to deal with the issue of climate change. Climate change did not just start in 2016. That year happened to be just like the culmination of the problem that showed up, and there’s need for an immediate action on climate change.”
He further explained: “So, the government rolled out a number of things, and these were even before I became a minister, and we have done so much which I can give you examples. We started the issuance of green bond and bond issuance is to generate money solely for green projects at that time.
“Based on our calculations, we have met that 20 percent last year; in fact I can even say we have surpassed that. That’s why we took that as unconditional; it’s something that we know already we can do.”
