The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the procurement of N706.9m tools for the rehabilitation of one of the six units of the Jebba Hydro Electric Plant in Kwara State.

The rehabilitation of the entire plant will gulp about N3.9bn that will be provided by the Japanese government through a grant to Nigeria.

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Nebo addressed journalists alongside the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku; and the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina.

He said the sum approved by FEC to buy the tools that would be specially fabricated for the overhauling of the unit was Nigeria’s required counterpart funding of the grant.

Nebo said, “I sent a memo to seek council’s approval for the award of contract for the supply of Hitachi Generator special tools to Jebba Hydro Electric Plc. The availability of the special tools is a major prerequisite for commencement of the site work of the main rehabilitation project.

“The project will guaranty steady supply of another 96.4MW of electricity on completion by September 2014, and this will further stimulate the national economy. The project will also provide some Nigerians employment.

“In view of the above, council approved the supply of the generator special tools to Jebba Hydro Electric Plc in favour of Messrs Marubeni Corporation, Japan in the sum ¥363.204m with a delivery period of 10 months.”

Nebo said the overhaul became necessary in view of the fact that rehabilitation work had not been carried out on the power plant in 30 years, leading to the plant producing below capacity.

He said despite that the plant was designed to provide 578 megawatts of electricity; it had been fluctuating between 150MW and 300MW.