Nigeria’s Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, says the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the continuation of the 18,897 kilometres of inherited Roads and bridges across the country.
The Council also approved an additional twenty-five new roads for concessions, this would run under a Public-private partnership (PPP) model.
The Minister made the approvals known on Monday after the second Federal Executive Council Meeting of President Tinubu’s Administration.
Umahi disclosed further that the Council directed the Minister for Finance and the coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, Mele Kyari, the chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Zacch Adedeji and the Senior Special Assistant on Tax Reform to come up with strategies to source for the funds and other matters relating to funding of the inherited projects.
He said, “We presented a memo on an inherited scope of road infrastructure from the past administration and the total length of the roads we inherited and bridges were 18,897 kilometres. We also brought to the notice of FEC that several projects were awarded some lasting up to 20 years back, abandoned ongoing with no proper funding and so on. And there are some new critical routes totaling 12,000 kilometres and 24 bridges.
“FEC approved the continuation of these inherited projects and the new proposal and directed that the chief of staff, Minister for Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Minister for Works, Minister of Budget and planning, GCEO/GMD of NNPLC, chairman of IRS and SSA on Tax Reform, to meet and come up with strategies to source for the funds and everything patterning to the funding,” the Minister added.
The Minister also revealed that the Federal Executive Council granted permission for the prioritization of concrete pavements for ongoing projects based on their progress status. Additionally, the council allowed the utilization of asphalt in road construction, although with certain stipulations.
He further stated that the coastal road running from Phase 1 to Phase 2 which includes the engineering procurement and construction with the financing have all been approved.
“FEC also approved the coastal road running from Phase 1, which runs from Lagos to Port Harcourt to Calabar. Phase2 runs from S4 tearing off from this stretch to Sokoto and to Ogoja. It was approved to be done on EPC + F, that is engineering procurement and construction plus financing. The eight roads that were started in the past administration for concessioning that have gone through all the processes were also approved. The financial closure should be reached in November.
There were nine actually but one was pulled out, that is Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta and that has been given to the Ogun State government based on their request that they should do the road on their own and they will follow the HDMI which is a hardware development management initiative. No refunds for that but they will do it and toll it,” the Minister explained.
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