Abuja – The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello has commended the idea of building a 15-million-dollar Korea Model School located on Abuja Airport Road through a bilateral agreement between Nigeria and the Korean Government.
Bello gave the commendation when he received a delegation from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), led by the Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Noh Kyu-duk, on Friday in Abuja.
According to him, the school is the largest bilateral project between the two countries.
The minister said that when completed, the school would serve as a landmark and would strengthen the existing cordial relationship between Nigeria and Korea.
He gave assurance that his administration would strive to provide the counterpart fund for the project as expected, and give necessary support to ensure its success.
He also lauded KOICA for its proposed capacity building programme being planned for would-be teachers in the school.
This, he said, would create quality managers whose by-products would positively impact on the development of the country when the school becomes operational in 2018.
The minister added that his administration would soon create a special unit to communicate directly with multilateral agencies and countries developing joint venture projects with the FCT in order to smoothen their operations in the territory.
Bello, however, decried the geometric rise in Abuja’s population which, he said, was posing serious challenges in the areas of managing the city’s traffic, waste disposal and electricity generation.
He added that the Korean Government could consider the possibility of investing in these areas, to deepen its relationship with Nigeria.
“Electricity supply is a huge challenge and we need it for basic security issues like street lights at night, traffic lights for interchanges and in hospitals and many other areas.
“I can assure you that we are equally interested in any project that any Korean company is interested in doing in Abuja, to provide power.
“This is because power is needed more than ever in the city for public facilities; for now, we get power from the National Grid and it is not enough.’’
On public transportation, Bello said running the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system had been a challenge as substantial number of the buses were down and non-functional.
He added that his administration was willing to partner any company with experience in managing urban mass transit system, to ensure that the buses were on the road.
“We own the bus company, but if we get serious investors, we can reduce the percentage of ownership.
“Because what we are interested in, is not to make money out of the business, but to improve the movement of the people within the city.
In his remarks, the Korean ambassador said that his government would build certain parts of the Model School while the FCT Administration would handle other parts.
The ambassador said the project was unique because it would serve as a landmark in the education sector between Nigeria and the Korean Republic.
He observed that the electricity situation in the FCT was much better 20 years ago when KOICA first came to Abuja than now, expressing regret that the agency was running on generators to sustain its activities.
“Some of the Korean companies have good experience and technology to build this kind of power plant, if the opportunity could be given to us,’’ the ambassador said. (NAN)