DREDGING OF RIVER NIGER: FG AWARDS N35B CONTRACT

The Federal Government may have finally solved the riddle of the contentious issue of the dredging of the River Niger by awarding a N35 Billion contract for the project.
Reliable sources said the government awarded the contract to six companies in five slots, though it was not certain whether the contractors have been mobilized even when they were expected to commence work by the month of June.
The contractors are Fungtai Nigeria Ltd; which was awarded slot one, slot two went to Dredging International while lots Three and Four was awarded to Van Oor. The company that dredged the Calabar channel two years ago, while the last two slots went to Williams Lloyds Nigeria Ltd.
All the dredging companies are to be paid over N35 billion for the job while the consultants that would supervise their job on behalf of the Government would be paid about N1.2 billion for their consultancy services. The consultants are AIMS Consultant Nigeria Ltd, Royal Haskony, Dredging and Marine International, Enplang Group and Jayuta International Ltd.
The Dredging contract was awarded by the Chief Obasanjo's administration in 2007 but the contractors were unable to move to site due to fund paucity. Then the government planned to raise their mobilization fees from seven percent port development surcharge on imported items which have over the years raked into the government coffers unutilized billions of naira and the years' budgetary allocation to the National Inland Waterways Authority in addition to the unspent allocation for the project many years ago. The governments have been setting aside one billion for the project; which failed to take off. Two years ago the government said the first phase of the project would be completed at the cost of N9.6 billion. While the second phase, according to the then projection, would cost N15 billion.
The third phase was supposed to have commenced since last year at the cost of N10 billion while last phase which ought to be completed this year, going by the then projection, would have cost the government N8 billion. The contract for the dredging of River Niger was first awarded by the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), during the last military government of the late General Sani Abacha, to six contractors who were mobilized to the tune of N3.5 billion.
Although the contracts were not executed despite the huge amount disbursed, about N668 million was recovered, as at the last count, in 2007 from the contractors by the Obasanjo-led administration. The dredging project was conceptualized by the NIWA in year 2000 when it sent a memo on it to the Federal Ministry of Transport from where the presidency was alerted.
But rather than approve the memo and direct NIWA to go ahead with the project, the presidency then directed the PTF to fund the project. After the demise of the PTF, NIWA went ahead to raise another proposal on the dredging project, which was immediately approved by the presidency pending the release of funds. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the project had before now been released and it was favorable, although it revealed the negative impact on the immediate environment. Many Nigerians applauded the moves, then, to dredge the river although there were minority views, which was not favorable towards the project. They are mostly from some of the host communities especially in Niger Delta, which expressed fear of negative impact on their farmland and their immediate environment. Infact some Niger Delta activists took the Abacha government to court over the contract award for the River Niger dredging. They saw the whole project as political, claiming that the Northern Oligarchy wanted to create a sea route to Abuja by all means thereby reducing the strategic commercial and economic importance of the Niger Delta seaports to the northern parts of the country.

....Yar'Adua Inaugurates Project
However, in line with his administration's quest to give the nation an efficient inland water transport system, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has inaugurated the lower River Niger dredging project.

The event took place recently at the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) Dockyard, Lokoja, Kogi State.
At the inauguration, the President said his administration was committed to putting the country in the league of developed economies of the world as conceptualized in its Vision 20-2020 policy.
According to President Yar'Adua, the dredging of the Lower River Niger represents a key component of his administration's policy and a comprehensive development of the transport sector in recognition of the administration's valued integrated and efficient inter modern transport system in our national transportation efforts.
He expressed delight over the start of the dredging project after over 40 years of an earlier one, stressing that the project was a clear manifestation of his administration's determination to have an all-year round navigable inland water system. The dredging project, the President said, would cover a distance of about 572 kilometres from Warri in Delta State to Baro in Niger State.

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