The Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which in the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari held its FEC meetings every Wednesday has now been fixed for Monday under President Tinubu administration.
The change of date was made known by the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, while briefing State House correspondents shortly after the FEC meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Minister of Information pointed out that FEC meetings might not hold regularly, particularly if there is nothing urgent to discuss.
Only two FEC meetings have been held by President Tinubu since inaugurating his cabinet in August.
The swearing-in of three additional ministers who the National Assembly recently screened took place during the second FEC meeting on Monday.
Details Of Second FEC Meeting Emerge
At the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the second Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting was held yesterday (Monday).
The agreement reached between the government and the labor unions early this month to avert an industrial action was discussed during the meeting, along with economic matters.
This was disclosed by Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation, to correspondents at the State House after the FEC meeting.
He added that the challenges were also reliant on the Renewed Hope Agenda and were important to the current reality and expectations of Nigerians on the Tinubu-led administration.
Idris said, “The issues raised at the meeting include economy, road infrastructure around the country, a memo about the agreement reached between the government and the labour unions, as well as the export processing zone revitalisation.”
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said that the meeting approved the application for financing from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA).
He said that the country was able to access $1.5 billion from the IDA, which is the virtually free or zero-interest lending arm or financing arm of the World Bank.
Edun said, “Nigeria has been able to make the kind of macro-economic moves to take the tough decisions to restore balance in the economy in the government’s finances that have warranted support.
“This had engendered support from the multilateral development banks.
“It is on this basis that the World Bank is willing to consider and to process on our behalf $1.5 billion of concessional financing, relatively cheap financing and financing that will be dispersed relatively quickly.”
Edun said that another $80 million in financing from the African Development Bank was approved by the FEC for the Ekiti Knowledge Zone (EKZ) project aimed at empowering the youths in the sector of Knowledge Economy through technology and communications generally.
He said, “This is basically to support young people and their quest to take on technology to use it to be employed to be trained and to benefit from being part of the knowledge economy.
“This is being part of the technological wave that is present very much in Nigeria, which is becoming a bigger and bigger share of the economy.”
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong while addressing state house correspondents, said that FEC gave approval for the agreement between labour and the government during the October 2 meeting.
He said, “Presidential approval was given after analysing the agreement to provide for industrial harmony. Similarly, the 30-day implementation timeline agreed on was also approved by FEC.”
Ada Peter
