National Library Building To Be Completed At 50 Billion Naira

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, said the abandoned National Library building in Abuja, would be completed at the cost of N50 billion.

He said at a media conference that the Buhari
administration would not abandon any project initiated by any past
administration that was adjudged to be in public interest and that
efforts were on to complete the National Library Headquarters.

“You
may have been aware that the project was awarded in 2006 at a total
cost of N8 billion. By 2013, the project cost was reviewed upward to N18
billion. Work was however stopped by the end of 2013 due to poor
funding,” he said.

He said when this administration came into
power, the contractor submitted a new bill of N78 billion to complete
the project and a committee was set up to evaluate the project which
later submitted a bill of N50 billion.

“We have forwarded the
report to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for further appraisal.
The recommendation of the BPP will be forwarded to the Federal Executive
Council (FEC) for consideration. While we await these processes to be
completed, we are pursuing alternative sources of funding especially
from special intervention funding windows,” he said.
He said the
National Library of Nigeria (NLN) was required by its enabling Act to
have presence in all states of the federation and to fulfil the mandate.
He said contracts for the renovation of the Lagos, Benue, Nasarawa,
Imo, Adamawa, and Plateau branches have been awarded while others will
come on stream in 2020.

He said new branches were to be established in Delta, Anambra, Ekiti, Kebbi, Kogi and Jigawa states.

Source:- Dailytrustng