Abuja — The Federal Executive Council yesterday approved an intervention fund for the Lagos-Eko secondary school project with the sum of $95million (N13.870b).

The project is aimed at directly supporting the junior and senior secondary schools and will benefit over 500,000 public schools pupils, build the capacity of over 7,000 teachers and school administrators and strengthen capacity of district institutions.

Briefing after the 25th FEC meeting, the minister of Information and Communications, Prof Dora Akunyili said the sum of $225million (N32.850b) was also approved for the control of HIV/AIDs development Project.

The funds are sourced as credit from the International Development Association (IDA).

She said the Council also considered and approved the final payment of the sum of N6,191, 269, 869,94 in favour of RCC for the construction of the Fed ministry of finance. The credit would support human development in all areas and strengthen the capacity of both the teachers and students in the sector.

In order to mitigate the spread of HIV/AIDS, council considered a memo from the minister of finance and approved for another IDA credit in the sum of SDR150,000,000.00 ($225million) at an exchange rate of 1 SDR to USD 1.495 for the second HIV/AIDs dev. Project.

She said the council approved this memo with a proviso that there should be re-negotiation of the loan terms so that more funds will be directed to screening and treatment. The minister also noted that the last Wednesday of every month has been set aside for stock taking.