The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N169.7 billion in private sector investments for road infrastructure through the government’s Tax Credit Scheme.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, while briefing correspondents at the end of the council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.

He recalled that the scheme was initiated in 2019 through Executive Order 7 signed by President Buhari, allowing the private sector to finance public infrastructure in lieu of tax and then offset it over time using tax credits.

Under the scheme, Council Wednesday approved the 234-kilometre road from Bali to Sheti through Gashaka to Gembu in Taraba State at the sum of N95,232,474,010.72.

Fashola said that an existing N20 billion under NNPC Tax Credit Scheme would be used to kickstart the project immediately.

“The second road which is also the tax credit scheme, which was approved by Council is actually three roads. The applicant, in this case, is Mainstream Energy Solutions, a major energy player in the country is now seeking to also participate in this policy by investing a total of N74,486,577, 050,” he explained.

Also briefing, on behalf of his counterparts in Aviation, Power and Agriculture, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the Council approved the sum of N3,491,622,340 for the purchase of a property in Abuja for the Ministry of Aviation.

He said when acquired, the property would enable the ministry to bring its agencies together in a single location.

The Minister said Council awarded a N553.575 million contract for the establishment and deployment of Advanced Report Generation Utility Engine Web-based Reporting Tools in favour of Msssrs Sinecou Limited with a delivery date of 12 months.

He further stated that the Minister of Power, in his memo to the council, got approval for the upward review of the original contract sum in respect of the construction of 232 kilometres Yola, Song, Gombe, Mubi, Gulako 132 KV double circuit transmission line from $16 million-plus N1.248 billion to $16.698 billion-plus N2,337,643,640.

He added that the sum of N409 million was approved for the Power ministry to purchase replacements of defective circuit breakers even as he disclosed that a memo of the Minister of Agriculture seeking approval for a National Agricultural Technology Innovation Policy was approved.

Also, briefing the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba, said the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning presented a memo on Phase three of the Lighthouse program on the digital infrastructure of voluntary assets and income declaration scheme bids and tax harmonisation normalisation analytics and application program interface.

According to him, the update on the project Lighthouse application was on the debt recovery module, the corporate profiling engine as a government gateway, and then the project Lighthouse website, federal government revenue performance management module and capacity building.

Agba added that with Phase 1 and 2, the government has been able to recover the sum of N5 billion from contractors.

He assured that with the implementation of the third phase, more recovery would be made.

 

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