New Telegraph

FEC okays electronic cargo tracking system to curb oil theft, targets $235m annually

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the installation of Electronic Cargo Tracking Device that will monitor the vessels entering and leaving Nigeria’s water space at the ports. Minister of Transportation, Jaji Sambo, after the weekly Council meeting chaired by President Muhammad u Buhari at the Presidential Villa yesterday.

The device, according to him, would help to check the incidences of oil thefts along the Nigerian maritime waters. He said “This scheme include also the tracking of our oil exports. This way we are going to reduce, if not totally eliminate oil theft” Sambo disclosed that the system put in place, a scheme already widely implemented in other 26 African counties, including Ghana, Senegal, Benin republic and Togo.

The devise, he stressed, was also expected to “tackle under declaration at ports and secure imports and exports, provide transparency in cargo invoicing and declarations” He disclosed that the countries where the devises are operational, have recorded tremendous improvement in the management of trades across borders.

The implementation of the scheme would stop the challenge of under declaration, concealment and wrong classification of cargo which were primary causes of revenue leakages, insecurity and safely issues at the borders. “The deployment of the state of the art ECT will ensure the elimination of loop holes in border operations and boost government revenue in form of duties, port charges and levies.

“The platform will be deployed by a consortium of five companies made up of a foreign technical partner and four local companies. Apart from the above advantages, the scheme will also generate revenue for the government ranging from about $90 million per annum to a peak of about $235m per annum. “Furthermore it is at no cost to the government. The investments are going to be made by the investing private sector companies and revenues that would be derived from the small margin of Charges would be shared in the ratio of 60 percent to the government and 40 percent to the consortium of companies” The Council also approved the sum of $53.1 million for the procurement and installation of electricity conductors and transformers that will help boost power supply in the country. Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, who made this disclosure, said when installed, the conductors would help address the challenge of constant tripping of circuit breakers due to overloading of electricity lines. He revealed the cost of the conductors also included a Naira component of N2.1billion. “The total amount for these four components of conductors is $53,131, 128.93 plus an onshore component of N2, 127, 068, 626. 45,” he said. According to him, the new conductors would be used to upgrade existing power lines, with the aim of enhancing their efficiency. “These are existing lines which are being upgraded. The wires will be removed and new ones put in place and the difference is that the new ones will be more efficient because they carry more load than the old ones.

Read Previous

…FG officials seeking out of court settlement –El-Rufai alleges

Read Next

Governors divided over CBN’s cash swap policy

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *