Private Sector investment: Works Minister meets with Dangote, Kefas, Elumelu

In line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda to develop infrastructure in Nigeria, the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi has intensified efforts to get private sector investment into road development and rehabilitation.

To this end, the Minister met with Africa’s foremost businessman and CEO of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, the Governor of Taraba State, Agbu Kefas and a former Minority Leader of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Godwin Elumelu.

In a press statement by the Special Adviser to the Minister on Media, Mr. Uchenna Orji, it said the closed door meeting is part of several meetings the Minister is holding with concessionaires and other private sector to execute the Highway Development and Management Initiative of the government.

“It would be recalled that the Hon. Minister of Works in his zeal to change the ugly narrative of road infrastructure in Nigeria had set up three committees to work on the contracts executed by some concessionaires with the Federal Ministry of Works with a view to reviewing the scope and cost implications of the projects they undertook, to execute under the Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI). This private sector initiative will FastTrack road infrastructure revolution and bring order, accountability, and profitable entrepreneurship to the operations, management, and maintenance of Federal Highways.

“It is hoped that investors, local and international, and other organized bodies would take advantage of the will power of the President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope administration and the private sector experience and professional capacities of the Hon. Minister of Works to invest in the over 35,000 Km of the national road network being managed by Federal Government of Nigeria as this road network carries more than 70% of the vehicular traffic, making it a critical infrastructure for the movement of goods and services across the nation,” the statement stated.