The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved $92 million for a consultancy service contract for the construction of OB3 gas pipeline project.

The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, told State House correspondents after the cabinet meeting that the approval was sequel to a memo by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, for a revised estimate of total cost for the engineering, procurement and construction of the pipeline project.

He said that the project contract had been awarded but there was a need for the cost of the redesigning to seek Council’s approval so that there will be enough funds to execute the project.

The minister explained that the project was important because it has to do with the delivery of gas from the eastern part of the country to the power turbines and to improve our power supply.

According to him, the contract which was awarded to Nestor Limited and Olisa Limited would cost $92 million and N765,968 million.

Mohammed also confirmed the approval by the FEC of three memos presented by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun.

The memos are for the ratification of the multilateral competent authority agreement on automatic exchange of financial accounting information, ratification of the Africa 50th Articles of Association and the approval for the financial transparency policy guidelines.

He clarified: “The memos sought for the ratification of the multi lateral competent authority agreement on automatic exchange of financial account Information. The memo is on the transparency policy guidelines is going to assist in curbing tax evasion and improve the revenue collection of government.

“She also presented a memo asking for the approval of ratification of the African 50th article association. This particular memo is unique in the sense that both the African 50th project finance and African 50th project development association are actually two windows which have been created by the African Development Bank to allow for bankable infrastructural projects to be financed by the subsidiaries of the African Development Bank.

“The memo will take care of certain projects which cannot be financed simply by the AfDB.

“Such projects to be financed by these two platforms and already Nigeria is one of the founding members of these two platforms and have invested heavily in them and with the ratification of this treaty, it has made it possible for Nigeria to take advantage of this.

“The minister of finance is seeking the council’s approval for the financial transparency policy guidelines. This memo was approved and I think the unique thing about this memo is that it going to bring more transparency to how government revenue and account are being handled.

“As a matter of fact, with the approval of this memo it will now be possible for the public to know exactly how much revenue is collected by the government, how much is being spent just by going on the website of the various ministries, department and agencies”, Mohammed added.