The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Thursday approved the total of sum of N977.7 million for the N-Creative and N-Tech trainings to empower 3,500 beneficiaries in Northern and Southern Nigeria respectively.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udo Udoma, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Udoma said the N-Creative and N-Tech trainings were part of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).

He listed the four thematic areas of the N-Creative training and their respective beneficiary distributions as script writing—150 beneficiaries, graphic illustration—375 beneficiaries, animation-750 beneficiaries and post production-225 beneficiaries.

“We submitted two memos to the council both on the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).

“The first was for the award of consultancy service contract for the provision of training services and integrated supply of starter packs for N-Creative trainees in the Northern States of Nigeria under NSIP in the N652.3 million inclusive of five per cent VAT.

“Basically, the N-Creative training service is to be held in Abuja; it will be delivered to 1,500 beneficiaries with integrated starter packs distributed to trainees at end of that training.

“The second memo was again, under the NSIP.

“It was for the award of consultancy service contract for provision of training services and integrated supply of starter packs for the N-Tech Software trainees in Southern Nigeria under the NSIP in the sum of N325.4 million.

“It is software training service; the N-Tech will have 2,000 beneficiaries,’’ he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Government’s N-Power scheme currently engages no fewer than 500,000 youth graduates deployed to provide public health services in teaching, health, agriculture and tax and monitoring.

It also engages another 200,000 non-graduates in training or on attachment to organisations as interns.

On his part, the Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, said that the ministry presented two memos- both of them seeking for the extension of consultancy services for the supervision of some ongoing projects, which were priority projects.

According to him, the first project is the Ngawa Danladi Dam Project in Katsina State, is about 50/60 per cent completed.

“Last year, we got a revised estimated total cost for the project and extension of time for the contractors.

“To align everything together, the consultancy services for the supervision also has to be extended to correspond with the completion period.

“To that effect, we got approval from council for an augmentation of over N91 million for the consultancy services supervision; this now raises the consultancy fee from N125.7 million to a total of N217.4 million.’’

Adamu said that the second memo was in respect of Mangu Dam Project.

He said that the Mangu Dam had attained about 70 per cent completion but was still an ongoing project.

“We also had a Revised Estimated Total Cost (RETC), approved by Council last year, which also approved an extension period for the completion of the works.

“In the same vein, the consultancy period for the consultant has to be adjusted to correspond to the completion period.

“This augmentation was N111.6million to raise the consultancy services from N104million to over N215 million with an extension period of 24 months,’’ he said