Juliet Akoje in Abuja
The House of Representatives yesterday mandated its Committee on Information Communications Technology to investigate the status of implementation of phase one of the project including a forensic audit on relevant transactions for the purpose of executing the National Information Communications Technology Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB) projects one and two.
It also urged the Galaxy Backbone Limited and Ministry of Finance to immediately halt all certificates of completion and payments respectively, in lieu of the project, pending the completion of the investigation by the Committee.
These resolutions followed the adoption of a motion on the Need to Investigate the Execution of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Galaxy Backbone and the Chinese Government for Fibre Infrastructure Across the Country moved by Hon. Mzondu Benjamin Bem yesterday at plenary presided by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon Idris Wase.
Bem noted that Nigeria’s Galaxy Backbone Limited, an agency under the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, signed an MoU with China’s Huawei Technology Limited in 2018 to provide fiber infrastructure under the NICTIB 1 and 2 Projects.
“Following the MoU, Huawei Technology Limited is expected to design, manufacture and deploy the kit that controls Data movement across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the country”
“As part of the agreement. the relevant Committee of the House and the National Assembly at large approved about $475million credit facility for the various Phases of the Project(s) to be made available by China’s EXIM Bank.”
“Aware that phase one of the project which spans 13 states across the South-east, South-south, North-central and South-west Zones of the country has been completed and commissioned.”
Furthermore, Bem stressed that all through the execution and completion of phase one of the Project funded by part of the credit facility, Galaxy Backbone and to a large extent, the Ministry of Communications have frustrated efforts to oversight progress of the Project.
Adding that Galaxy Backbone Limited had made claims that the completion of Phase | of the Project is expected to reap revenue to the tune of billions of naira for the Government.
“Whereas there has been no oversight to ascertain the level of the job done and verify claims of revenue generated by the Agency, there is a current bid to access an additional $328 million ($126.7 billion) credit facility to develop the NICTIB Phase II which covers 19 Northern States”
“Cognizant of the need to ensure judicious use of the nation’s commonwealth while ensuring the government’s ICT policy is implemented according to every aspect of statutory provisions guiding the execution of the project,” Bem explained.
