The Federal government of Nigeria is set to invest US $110m in reconstructing nine public buildings which are currently in a bad shape.
Mr Babatule Raji Fashola, Minister of water, power and housing confirmed the reports and said said the projects would be executed under the National Maintenance Framework for public buildings recently approved by the Federal Executive Council, FEC.
“The federal government’s decision on maintenance is an economic decision. It is meant to empower Nigerians at the base of the economic pyramid especially those who are artisans. It is also meant to empower the middle class; those who are in small and medium scale enterprises, manufacturers of cottage industry produced equipment and generally drive the growth of Nigeria’s economy,” said Mr Fashola.
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Reconstruction project
The project according to the minister include; the prison, court, federal secretariat, hospital, a federal government college and four of blocks of building in the ministry of Power, Works and Housing including the power house.
“We thought that if we pursue maintenance at about US $1.6 m to US $2.4bn per annum, those buildings can achieve their desired life of between 50 to 70 years. If we had US $110m in any event, instead of using them to replace existing buildings, we should be using them to expand and provide more for our growing population.” he added
The project will help create job opportunities to 400 people where one of the schools will require around 34 people and there are about 104 unity schools. The architects were asked to brace up in designing buildings at the proper slope. The parking lots will have designated number of parking spaces for people living with disability. The airports will also have to be retrofitted and redesigned to provide a dedicated channel for entry and exit points as seen all over the world.
