The Senate on Monday said all the litigation and financial hurdles hindering the smooth take-off of the Mambila Hydro Electric Power project had been resolved.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Local Content, Senator Teslim Folarin, stated this while receiving the report of the finance subcommittee of the Mambila Hydroelectric Power projects.
He said a subcommittee made up of the Nigerian Export and Import Bank (NEXIM) and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority had been asked to strategize on how to facilitate the financial requirement of the local-content aspect of the project estimated at N1.7 billion.
“Thereafter, the reviewed report was forwarded to the National Assembly for further legislative action,” he said.
“Consequently, the National Assembly along with the Technical Working Group, constituted the Finance Subcommittee under the Chairmanship of the Executive Director, NEXIM Bank.
“The Subcommittee was inaugurated earlier this year by the Senate Committee on Local Content and it was mandated to report back to the committee within six weeks.”
According to Folarin, the major legal challenge with Sunrise of the payment of $200 million and accrued interest had been resolved.
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“We have made some progress and breakthroughs, but we are yet to forward the report to the leadership of the Senate,” he asserted.
“The federal government was mandated to pay to the contractors (Sunrise) $200m and if we don’t pay within a stipulated time, then we have accrued interest.
“As far as the contractors are concerned, they said their money is now $400m because of the accumulated interests.
“The project was officially awarded by the Federal Executive Council on August 30, 2017, and it has been signed as a contract between the Nigerian government, Ministry of Power and the Chinese Joint Venture of CGGC.”
The red chamber said the contractors were expected to mobilise men and materials to site before the end of the year.
The Liaison officer and administrator for Hypertech, the consultant to the Federal Government and Chinese government on the Mambilla project, Mrs Maimuna Muhammed, also said all litigation had been effectively resolved.
She said, “We have a breakthrough concerning all the litigation about the project. All the delays we had before everything has been sorted out.
“Now we are ready to kick-start the project. The next programme we are going to have is the Business Roundtable, after that we move to the site, in Taraba State.”
