From Uche Usim, Abuja
Efforts to swell revenue from non-oil sources gained momentum at the weekend, as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the concession of the Cassava Bio-mass, Bio-ethanol Value Chain.
The move will boost wealth creation, provide jobs, reduce poverty, improve food security and nutrition, provide renewable energy and reduce carbon footprint.
FEC also approved the National Fire Detection and Alarm System (NAFDAS) for the effective prevention, detection and management of fire across the country.
Both projects which are under the regulatory guidance of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), target among other things, a revenue generation of over N180m.
According to the Commission, while the NAFDAS project will generate a total of N75 billion in the 15-year concession period, the Cassava Bio-ethanol Value Chain will generate total revenue of N105 billion within the five-year concession period.
“The Cassava Bio-Ethanol Value Chain will be done on a pilot phase, aimed to build a Bio-technology Industrial Park on a 20-hectare plot across 20 universities, academic and research and development institutes.
“In the pilot phase, 5,000 special hybrid cassava (TME 419) stems will be planted per hectare, (100,000 stems for 20 hectares). In addition, the project will supply Organic Fertilisers/Boosters/Conditioners, pre and post emergent herbicides, pesticides, insecticides, fungicides and knapsack sprayers.
“The project also seeks to double cassava production from the current 62 million tons to output of over 120 million tons with improved tropical agro-ecology, bio-technology, intense mechanisation and effective partnership resource mobilisation; Nigeria can double output to 120 million metric tons in five years,” it explained in a statement.
ICRC added that the key goal of the cassava-Bioethanol pilot project is to demonstrate the efficacy of a private sector-led approach in promoting investment in renewable biomass and creating wealth, providing jobs, reducing poverty, improving food security & nutrition, providing renewable energy and reducing carbon footprint.
“The project is proposed to be financed with a grant from the Federal Government and Concessionaire investment totaling N11.9bn. The revenue stream presented by the project includes sales of cassava stem, cassava flour, garri, starch and Bio-ethanol. Total revenue for the 5 years concession period is N105,610,000,000.
“For the NAFDAS project, it aims to provide fire mitigation hardware, software and equipment that will be linked to a cloud network which will be supervised by the Federal Fire Service through a Private entity.
“Through the use of this technology, call and response time in fire incidents will be automated thus drastically reduced, avoidable incidents forestalled, more life and property saved and generally improve the efficiency in fire prevention, detection and management.
“This means that smoke alarms and other fire detection hardware will be linked to a server which will alert the system when the user is in distress without them having to call for help”, it added.”
ICRC noted that the projects will begin on a pilot scale with seven states of the federation before rolling out to all other states across the country.
The total projected cost for the project is put at N3.5 billion whereas government targets a revenue generation of N75 billion within the 15-year period of the concession.
Share of revenue to the government was projected as 40 per cent of subscription revenue totaling N17,262,850,871 (an average of N1,150,856,724 over the 15 years proposed concession period).
The revenue stream presented by the project includes margin on installations and annual subscription fee from users of the service.