Osun Govt awards Uniosun access road, two other projects for N1.15bn

Osun State Government has awarded contract for the construction of access road leading to the main campus of Osun State University, Osogbo, re-construction of gate, beautification/landscaping of government house premises, as well as identification and verification of artisans, traders, school children and other residents in the state at the whopping cost of N1, 153,921,807.

The construction of access road to Uniosun was awarded to Messrs Kudwin Investment Nigeria Limited at the cost of N621,708,661.60; the re-construction of the university gate/gate houses and beautification/landscaping of government house premises was awarded to Messrs Red Project  Services Limited at the sum of N64,963,146.82, while the identification and verification of artisans, traders, school children and other residents in the state was awarded to Messrs Charms Plc at a cost of N467,250,000.

The three contracts were awarded at the 54th Executive Council Meeting of the state. Briefing journalists at the end of meeting, the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Sunday Akere said that the award of contract for the access road to Uniosun was necessary, having discovered that the existing roads to the campus is a mere bye-pass, hence, the need to construct a dual carriage way and provide an access road to the university.

He said that the contract was awarded through a contractor-financing arrangement and completion period for the project is nine months, saying that a mobilisation fee of 15 percent would be paid to the contractor.

The commissioner also said that the aim of the reconstruction of gate/gate houses and beautification/landscaping of government house premises was to enhance security and ensure that the environment is better maintained.

He said that the contractor would be paid with the mobilisation fee of 30 percent, while the completion period is four months from the time of mobilisation.

According to Akere, the council considered the engagement of a contractor to carry out the identification of artisans, trade men, school, children and other residents in the state, with the objective of improving government data, statistics, and demography details, saying that “it will be a unique forge-proof identification system and provide online verification of identities at point of service”.

This exercise, the commissioner noted, would enhance government service delivery across the state, saying that no fluctuation or variation claims would be entertained in the contract.

However, the Osun Special Ambulance Authority, he noted, would commence work very soon, saying that it is the first time any government in Nigeria would have a stand-alone ambulance service that would always be on standby at strategic locations across the state to attend to emergencies.

According to him, the target is to reduce the number of casualties in any emergency to the barest minimum.

He also disclosed that 220 Sherif Guards from the Osun Youths Empowerment Scheme OYES have been posted to the state hospitals and health facilities, with a view to ensuring that things goes on smoothly in the facilities, just as he conveyed the appeal of the council to all the health workers in the health facilities to always wear their name tags for easy identification.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security briefed the council at the meeting on its activities in the past one year where it was reported that the state government has approved  100 creeps for storage of harvested farm produce, out of which 30 have been completed, while work has commenced on the rest.

The ministry was reported to have begun the purchase of Cargo Tricycle for agricultural produce haulage, saying that ten tricycle have been purchased and they would be distributed to the OYES farmers who were being trained to have their own farms.

He added: “The government, in the year 2012 released money to the ministry to raise 500,000 seedling of cocoa, out of which 100,000 have been raised and before the end of the year, the remaining 400,000 would have been successfully raised. The ministry is also working with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to raise one million high breed pods of cocoa and out of these, they have raised 221,930.

“The ministry has successfully raised 40,000 oil palm seedlings in the year 2012, which would be sold to farmers earlier in the year 2013 and in the same year, the ministry is targeting 50,000 oil palm seedlings to be raised for sales in year 2014”, he stated.

According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture also reported to have established three Fish Farm Estates in Esa-odo, Iwo and Okinni, adding that the government has released the sum of N27,720,000 to the ministry for its Osun Fisheries Out-growers Production Scheme, O’Fish through a company, Kayolad Nigeria Limited.

He said that at the farm, 24 OYES cadets were currently undergoing training on how to raise fish or establish their fish farms, disclosing that other farms like Oshin Farms Nigeria Limited and FEC Agro Nigeria Limited have also benefited from the loan facilities put in place by the government to assist fish farmers across the state.

On the Osun Broiler Out-growers Production Scheme, which is targeted towards producing 1.2 million day-old Chicken per annum, Akere said that the Ministry of Agriculture reported that  the government has released N339,463,200 to the scheme, saying that 451,469 day-old broilers have been produced, while 296,798 day-old broilers are also being raised now as back up. Farmers involved in the scheme was said to have reported that they have made profit of over a million naira since they started.

Meanwhile, 1,500 hectares of land were targeted for clearing this year under Agricultural Quick Intervention Programme, QUIP, but according to the report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Akere said that 1,557 hectares of land have been cleared till date.

Posted by on September 25, 2012. Filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.