FEC Approves $3.45 Billion Loan For Power, Other Projects

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a $3.45 billion loan to fund initiatives for adolescent girls’ learning and empowerment, resource mobilization programs for states, and power sector projects.

The federal cabinet met on Monday at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa in Abuja under the chairmanship of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, made the announcement while briefing a State House reporter.

The five loans each had a term of around 40 years, a moratorium of about 10 years, and extremely low interest rates, he claimed, adding that “in the cases of the either loans, zero interest, some fees would be incurred.”

The project to lower the number of out-of-school children will benefit girls between the ages of 10 and 20 from 18 participating states, according to the Minister of Education of Nigeria, Professor Tahir Mamman.

The minister said that the council had reassessed its policy direction and given the Public Procurement Council permission to exercise its authority over contract awards in accordance with the Public Procurement Act, allowing FEC to focus on matters of national significance.

The council approved the Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund under a governing board with the goal of raising $5 billion annually from diverse sources, according to Betta Edu, the minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, who was briefing the audience.

The finance minister and other pertinent ministers were among the committee members, she said, and they will carefully plan out the implementation.

The minister added that the protocol on the protection of senior citizens’ rights in Nigeria was also ratified by FEC.

The draft policy, which covers the full spectrum of oil activities, operations, rules, regulatory framework, handling, sourcing, mining, and other sector dynamics, was adopted by the council, according to the minister of solid mineral development, Dele Alake.

The minister revealed the plan to change the security architecture with the adoption of this strategy, which involved inter-security agency structure to address the threat, and claimed that both high and low were engaged in illicit mining.

“In essence, it gives the solid mineral ministry to act on all issues pertaining to deregulation, …, management, operation of all the solid minerals sector, sanitizing the environment and making it investor friendly and ensuring the security and stability of investment and of course, giving us also a lot of attractions to both local and foreign investors,” he added.

If Nigeria didn’t actively seek to diversify its economy in light of what was happening in the international oil market, according to Alake, it would find itself in terrible problems economically in a few years.

“And if we have an abundance of solid mineral resources, why shouldn’t we diversify, concentrate, exploit judiciously, proficiently and efficiently, these God-given abundance resources?” he asked.

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