The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) , Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has hinted that plans are under way to build capacity of its over 27,000 workforce.

Saying, this will enhance their productivity to develop an ongoing city under construction.

He gave this known when he played host to a delegation of the University, led by its Vice Chancellor, Professor Olufemi Peters, on a courtesy visit to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), saying, such collaboration will close the gaps in capacity development of the FCTA which has a workforce of over 27,000.

According to him ; “A  machinery is being put in place to strengthen collaboration between the and the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), especially in the areas of manpower development and research.

“We pride ourselves as an institution that strives to train and retrain its staff over the period of time. In the past, that was done through a combination of public sector institutions as well private sector institutions. But because we have such a large bureaucracy of over 27,000 workers, there is a lot we can do together”.

 
“We will look at what is available and then we factor you in our annual training plans and then we see what is possible.  Some of the training will be targeted to our specific needs in terms of our locality and also our peculiar situation as a Ministry that is meant to develop an ongoing city under construction”.

He added that, other areas the University could collaborate with the FCTA, the Minister said, were in  interventions on converting waste to wealth as well as research into the root cause of  traffic gridlocks in some areas of the FCT with the view of proffering solutions for a more environment friendly and livable city.

 
He, however, urged the University to interact closely with the various departments of the FCTA and discover for themselves more areas of possible collaboration with the Administration, saying, “we will encourage your faculty to create time to interact more closely with our various departments, get to know what is available, move round the city, see problems and then proffer solutions. Just ask for permission so that we can give you access and also background information and data”.

 
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of NOUN had itemized areas that the University could partner with the FCTA to include capacity building for primary and secondary school teachers in ICT, Civil servants for service delivery and entrepreneurship education for the youths. Other areas of possible collaborations are research on environmental pollution and traffic congestion.

He also appealed to the Minister for a partnership between the FCTA and NOUN that would enable students of the University to undertake their teaching Practice, Industrial Training and clinical postings and practicum in FCTA owned facilities.

Present at the meeting were the FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr Olusade Adesola, Chief of Staff of the Minister, Malam Bashir Mai-Bornu, Director Human Resource Management, Malam Bashir Mohammed, the Ag. Sec Education Secretariat, Alh. Abdulrazak Leramoh and other senior officials of the FCTA and NOUN.

Over the weekend, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) dismantled over 400 illegal structures as part of its efforts to rid the nation’s capital of criminal gangs.

Criminals and settlers alike use some of the illegal structures as safe havens.

The majority of the structures were in Lugbe-across, near Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.

Adamu Gwary, the FCTA’s Director of Security Services, spoke on behalf of the administration, warning that the administration will not stand by and watch criminals take over the city.

He hinted that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, is not pleased with unlawful structures that pose a security threat to the city.

He also assured that with the minister’s political will the removal of illegal structures will be sustained.

According to him; “The minister of FCT is not happy with the development along the Airport road and as such he ordered the removal of all activities that will deface the vicinity and also create security threat to the nation’s capital. You can see that there are so many nuisances which come along with its own security implications. Recently the minister presented a paper on items vandalized.

“Ones there is the political will which the minister has given the go ahead we will sustain it. We have the support of the security agencies and all the departments in FCT are at work. You can see that we came out in the rain, once there is that go-ahead, there is no going back, we will sustain it.

“If we identify where there are nuisance, we will pencil it down for operation. It is not only the Airport road but the Airport road has you know is the eye of the city so, we cannot afford to joke with it”.

Similarly , the Chairman, FCT Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, Comrade Ikharo Attah, said the operation was occasioned by national security.

Attah stated that the Administration had received disturbing reports that some illegal makeshift structures were being erected along the Airport road despite several demolitions.

According to him : “We enjoy strong political will from the minister. Very sadly, just last week we were here and after clearing this place people have rebuilt some structures. And we have cleared many structures again and this time around we have taken more drastic measures. We also appeal to people, some of them who are building back after seven days of clearing, are saying they have approached the FCDA. We do not collect bribes. We do not compromise land use standards. Don’t give bribes and we will not take.

“Anywhere the minister asks us to clear, that we will do. We cannot keep a city anyhow. People want to leave illegally”.

Meanwhile , the Chief Security Officer to the FCT Minister, Ahmed Rashid disclosed that the administration has also identified strategies that the scavengers, criminals and the illegal settlers are adopting and where they are hibernating: “and we are dislodging them.

“As you can see the security challenges are increasing and we cannot wait until the criminals enter the main city before we deal with them.

“We are clearing all the illegal motor parks to reduce the number of one-chance. We also notice that they will strike in the city and go back to their safe haven. By the time we clear all their safe haven there will be no hiding place for them”.

The demolition exercise despite the heavy rain started at Lugbe-Across, Lugbe-Berger, Car wash and Lugbe Zone 5 and lasted for eight hours with heavy security personnel to avoid breakdown of law and order.

The security team comprised men of the Nigeria Army, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Air Force Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Abuja Environmental Protection Board as well as officials of the department of Development Control of the FCTA.

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), a pan-African multilateral trade finance institution based in Cairo, Egypt, plans to create an African Medical Center of Excellence in Abuja.

This was revealed during a bank delegation led by Professor Benedict O. Oramah, President and Chairman, Board of Directors’ visit to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, who welcomed the delegation, expressed his enthusiasm for the initiative, noting that the development of the Medical Centre in Abuja will not only attract people seeking medical attention from across the African continent to the Center, but also reduce medical tourism from Nigeria.

According to him; “We feel highly honoured with your tangible presence in respect of the projects you are doing here, and we look forward to your investments either directly or as an enabler because, as you know, Abuja itself is a city that started from scratch and is still a work in progress,” Malam Bello said, praising Afreximbank for its various projects and investments in the FCT. As a result, we need enablers like you.”

The Minister also asked the bank to assist the FCT Administration with infrastructure development, particularly in the proposed location of the Medical Centre of Excellence and the powering of street and traffic lights around the city.

While speaking further on electricity generation and possible areas of support from the bank, the Minister said that Nigerian laws made provisions for the Eligible Customer that consumes electricity in excess of 2 megawatts to independently source for electricity. He said that the FCT could explore this possibility with support from the bank.

He said “The power laws in Nigeria now allows for what we call Eligible Customer. Once your consumption is up to two megawatts and obviously the consumption of the city is far above two megawatts, that allows us to create a solution that is off grid, and then of course we look at renewable options”.              

Earlier, Afreximbank’s President, Professor Benedict Oramah said the bank’s team was in the FCTA to brief the Minister on the progress made on the construction of the African Medical Center of Excellence and the African Trade Center in Abuja.

He also commended the FCT Minister for the tremendous support the bank has enjoyed from the FCTA, especially as it begins to implement some of its initiatives in Nigeria that are based in Abuja.

Shedding more light on the establishment of the Medical Center, the Bank’s Director Export Development and Ag. Director Project and Asset Based Finance, Oluranti Doherty said that the bank was working closely with leading international medical, human resource and construction consultants and expressed optimism that the ground breaking ceremony will be carried out by November of 2021.

The FCT Minister, had in May last year presented the Certificate of Occupancy of the land for the African Medical Center of Excellence to be situated in the proposed Abuja Medical City Development Project, to Mr Abdoulaye Kone, Afreximbank’s Regional Chief Operating Officer, Anglophone West Africa.

Also present at the meeting were the FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr. Olusade Adesola, Chief of Staff to the Minister, Malam Bashir Mai Bornu, Solicitor General, of the FCTA Barr. Yusuf Wodi, Director Lands, Adamu Hussain Jibrin, amongst other staff of the FCTA and the bank.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has released a total of N2,724,546,444.33 billion to the Six Area Councils in the FCT and other stakeholders as its share of statutory allocation for the month of May 2021.

The 154th Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting was chaired over by Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, the FCT Minister of State, who stated that funds granted to the six area councils and other stakeholders had reduced drastically since April.

She added that a total of N4,035,289,643.20 billion was disbursed to the six area councils and other stakeholders in April, marking a 32.4 percent decrease from May 2021.

The minister explained that the decline in the allocation was as a result of drop in the statutory revenue allocation from the federation account.  

The figures released indicate that the sum of N864,650,673.55 million was made available for distribution to the six area councils, while the sum of N1,859,895,770.78 billion was made available to other stakeholders, bringing the total sum to N2,724,546,444.33 billion.  

She, however, hinted that the distribution to area councils show that the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), received N202,639,822.02 million, while Gwagwalada got N192,741,834.09 million and Kuje received N124,540,530.97 million.  

Similarly, Bwari Area Council received N94,908,257.47 million, Abaji got N137,990,711.51 million and Kwali received N111,829,517.49 million bringing the total sum to N864,650,673.55 billion disbursed to the six area councils.  

Furthermore, distribution to other stakeholders include: Primary Teachers which gulped N1,498, 321, 911.12 billion, 15 percent Pension Funds took N226,478,989.57 million, One percent Training Fund gulped N27, 245, 464.46 million, while 10 percent Employer Pension Contribution gulped N107,849, 405.63 million, bringing the total sum to N1,859,895,770.78 billion.  

Aliyu, who used the occasion to affirm that there was no going back in the implementation of minimum wage to area councils staff, however, enjoined the councils boss o make sacrifice towards the health insurance policy of councils staff.  

She, however, called for synergy of all revenue generation agencies with a view to scaling up the revenue base of the administration.  

The minister commended all the stakeholders for showing understanding in the distribution of monthly allocation to area councils and other stakeholders.  

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, has requested a closer working relationship between the FCT Administration and the National Center for Women Development (NCWD) to address issues affecting women’s well-being in the nation’s capital.

During a courtesy visit by the Center’s management to FCTA, the Minister made this call.

According to Malam Bello, the FCT has always been at the forefront of issues affecting women, particularly the girl child, and is usually one of the first to implement gender protocols, such as those found in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Bello also reminded his guests that the National Center for Women Development was located in close proximity to the FCTA and advised its management to use this advantage to work very closely with the FCTA to promote women issues in the FCT that can be replicated in other parts of the country.

He said, “A lot of things are being done at the FCT level and it’s a stone throw distance between your office and our office. I think it’s good for you to do a lot here so that when delegations from other states of the Federation come, they will see practically what you are doing jointly in partnership with the FCT so that they can replicate them in their respective states”

The FCT Minister also congratulated the Director General of the NCWD on her appointment saying that her antecedents in the fight for women and children’s rights and gender equality were well documented and wished her a successful tenure.

Earlier the Director General of the Center Hon. (Dr) Asabe Vilita Bashir said that the purpose of the visit was to intimate the FCT Minister on the workings of the Center as an institution created for gender research, training and orientation.

The Center, she hinted is interested in addressing the strategic elements and critical factors that affect women generally and is working with the support of Nigeria’s Gender Agenda, the African Platform for Action and the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action to facilitate the formation of appropriate policies training and organisation programmes for Nigerian women.

Present at the courtesy visit were the Permanent Secretary, FCTA, Mr Olusade Adesola, the Chief of Staff to the Minister, Malam Bashir Mai-Bornu, the Director Department of Resettlement and Compensation Mrs. Perpetua Ohanma and the Acting Director Department of Reform Coordination and Service Improvement, Dr Jummai Ahmadu amongst other staff of the FCTA.