The Ministry of Mines and Steel development on Sunday clarified N700 million was an investment on IT Infrastructure, Human Capital and Civil Works.
This was in reaction to a news making the rounds, especially on the social media that the Ministry spent the sum of N700 million creating a website for itself.
In a clarification statement issued on Sunday,Mohammed Abbas the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry said,” It is important to clarity that what the Ministry has acquired with the said sum of money is an integrated IT infrastructure which comprises two Data Centres, an off-site recovery centre, civil and environmental works on the Centres, running of the Centres till end of first quarter 2018, training of over 225 officials locally and internationally amongst other cost components of the entire infrastructure and programme”
The statement said:”When, last Thursday, 9th November 2017, our Ministers led other officials of the ministry and sectoral stakeholders to unveil the IT Integrated Automation & Interactive Solid Minerals Portal (IAISMP), we were really fulfilling one of the short-term pledges listed in our roadmap. These assets form critical pillars of our agenda to reform the mining and minerals sector, particularly as a key step towards our vision to lead the sector to shared mining prosperity where we make significant contributions to GDP in the country”
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Clarifying the further,the statement said,”In realising aspects of this project as a turnkey solution, we have been careful to follow all laid down processes. Since the cost of implementing the project is above ministerial limits, we sought and obtained the concurrence of the Federal Executive Council after a detailed presentation in January 2017″
HARRISON EDEH, ABUJA
