Google+ Web Photos more Inbox Fw: FROM PRESIDENCY(PUBLIC AFFAIRS) B Bamidele to HENRY, Olusola, Leon, +8 3 minutes agoDetails BS On Thursday, October 30, 2014 6:47 PM, Kehinde Adewole wrote: Sirs, Please find below, the story on todays Public Affairs Forum. Thanks for your usual assistance. Regards, Nnamdi Okosieme ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nigeria making steady progress under Jonathan- FG Three ministers on Thursday in Abuja informed the country of the impressive journey so far made by the Transformation Agenda of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration at the Public Affairs Forum organized by the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President t on Public Affairs. In his welcome address, Dr. Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant to the President, Public Affairs, said the Jonathan administration had taken significant steps in the last four years to improve the quality of life of Nigerians noting that the event was put together to let Nigerians know just how much the administration had done in that regard. Speaking at the occasion, the Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe said the journey in her ministry could simply be described as impressive. She pointed out that the transformation agenda of the Jonathan administration in the past four years focused on the provision of sustainable access to safe and sufficient water to meet the social and economic needs of all Nigerians maintaining that the major aim of the roadmap in the sector was to achieve the vision 20:2020 targets as set up in the Millennium Development Goals and Africa water vision in 2025. She also said the ministry engages in the construction, operation and maintenance of dams nationwide to impound raw water for potable water supply, hydropower, irrigation, fishery development, flood control, tourism and recreation. “Out of the 37 completed dams, 16 are with hydropower potentials capable of generating 135.15 megawatts of electricity has recorded 87% completion”, she stressed. According to her, “the ministry sees irrigations a key to the attainment of food security due to the fact that irrigation has the potential of increasing the agricultural productivity tenfold. Irrigation is also important for employment generation and poverty alleviation in rural areas. “The ministry through these irrigation facilities has supported the nation’s food security programme with 3,013,296 metric tonnes of assorted food and cash crops valued at over N45.0 billion”, she maintained. Lauding the efforts of the administration in irrigation, she disclosed that access to potable water has increased to 29 percent while sanitation moved from 32% to 41% under the recent national assessment. “ As part federal government intervention efforts, the ministry provided a total of 4,940 water supply facilities nationwide from 2010 to date. Out of this number, 4,099 newly constructed, mostly rural facilities, and 143 rehabilitated facilities have been completed nationwide while works on 698 water supply projects are currently ongoing in many states. She stated that existing water facilities have been rehabilitated nationwide and new ones completed increasing the total installed capacities of the completed water facilities to 1.9 million cubic metres per day, which is capable of meeting the water demand of about 30 million people, especially those living in rural areas and small towns”, he said. In his presentation, the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo said significant steps have been taken in the last four to improve power supply situation in the country. He said a number of existing projects have been completed and new ones under construction. One of he said, was the NIPP projects in Kaduna is almost completed while other areas of power generation have been explored including coal in places like Enugu, Benue, Kogi and Gombe, which can generate more than 4000 megawatts are in the offing He noted that the administration had robustly tackled the problematic issue of transmission, which he said was very poor when the administration came. He averred that the strengthening of infrastructure to distribute the generated energy has led to the construction of several transmission lines across the nation. He said such things did not come easy. He announced that on the 6th of November, 2014, the president will be launching the apprenticeship scheme to give 200 young engineers, technicians, NCE holders and even secondary school leavers from all the states of the federation including the FCT opportunity to participate in the value chain as well as bring about homegrown capacity. He added that several other projects costing several billions of naira have reached advanced stages of completion in places like Lagos, Kano, Abia, Imo, Anambra, AkwA Ibom among others which he said are funded by the World Bank. He said these projects will generate about 50,000 megawatts by 2015 pointing to the construction of several injection substations. For his part, Minister of Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka, said the Jonathan administration recognizing the fact that Nigeria is a hub considering its location, is making efforts to properly position the sector to contribute significantly to the nation’s GDP. “Every flight that lands in an airport, you pay a fee and you can imagine how much will be the income to our economy if 10 million passengers pass through our airports daily”, he informed He noted that if the aviation terminals are remodeled it will provide routes that can move passengers from Europe Asia and the Caribbean. He added that at the moment one of the priorities of his ministry is the movement and satisfaction all air travelers.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 20:39:38 +0000