FG approves N431bn for new road projects
•Says Nigeria not broke despite oil price slump Barely 28 days to the end of the year, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), Wednesday, approved a sum of N430.5 billion for the construction and rehabilitation of 17 strategic highways and bridges across the nation. This is even as the government claimed that the country was not […]
•Says Nigeria not broke despite oil price slump
Barely 28 days to the end of the year, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), Wednesday, approved a sum of N430.5 billion for the construction and rehabilitation of 17 strategic highways and bridges across the nation.
This is even as the government claimed that the country was not broke despite the declining oil prices.
The Minister of Works, Mike Onolememem, who briefed State House journalists after the FEC meeting chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan, explained that the contracts were awarded in furtherance of the strategic highways’ investments contained in the administration’s transformation agenda.
The minister, who maintained that the approval was aimed at enhancing the ongoing transformation of the road sector, said the projects spread across the 14 states of Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Enugu, Nasarawa, Abia, Niger, Kogi, Cross River, Lagos and Kaduna.
He noted that for the projects, there were budgetary provisions of N11 billion in the ministry’s 2014 budget and N10 billion from SURE-P; with the balance to be provided for in subsequent budgets.
He gave the breakdown of the amounts going to the states as follows: Rivers, N1206bn; Bayelsa, N26.4bn; Delta, N64.8bn; Delta, N47.9bn; Enugu, N32.3bn; Abia and Rivers, N34bn; Ogun, N100bn; Niger, N17.5bn; Bridge in Cross River, N6.5bn;
Yobe and Borno, N8.1bn; Kaduna and Zamfara, N15.6bn; Nasarawa, N14.2bn; Benue, N9.9bn; Kogi, N7.4bn; Gombe, N7.2bn; Cross River, N7bn; also Cross River, N9bn).
Onolememem listed the projects as including the Bodo-Bonny Road in Rivers State with 3 major bridges across Afa Creek, Opobo Channel and Nanabie Creek; Ikom Bridge in Cross River State;
the Agae-Katchia-Baro Road in Niger State; the Ikorodu-Shagamu Road in Lagos.
Others were Aba-Port Harcourt and Enugu-Lokpanta sections of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway; the Damaturu-Biu Road and the Gombe-Kaltungo Section of Gombe-Numan-Yola Road.
According to him, the Bodo-Bonny Road project will ensure that Bonny is linked with a road access for the first time since Nigeria came into
being; the Ikom Bridge will open up the Calabar Port for business
to the people of the North-Central and North-Eastern zones;
the Agae-Katchia-Baro Road in Niger State will link Baro
Inland Port to the FCT; the Ikorodu-Shagamu Road will
link the NNPC Depot at Mosimi;
He said the reconstruction and dualisation of Aba-Port Harcourt and Enugu-Lokpanta sections of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway would bring a new lease of life to Nigerians living and doing business there;
the Damaturu-Biu Road and Gombe-Kaltungo Section of
Gombe-Numan-Yola Road would bring succour to the people of the North-East that had witnessed wanton destruction of roads and bridges by the insurgency.
The ministers did not disclose the contractors to handle the projects, but said given their track records as well as the financing architecture put in place, all the 17 projects were
expected to be completed on schedule and on cost.
He said apart from creating over 13,500 jobs for Nigerian engineers, technicians, artisans, and unskilled labour, the projects, when completed, would improve travel times between origins and destinations in different parts of our country as well as reduce vehicle maintenance costs and road accidents.
On what informed the approval of the huge funds less than one month to the end of the year, Onolememem the contracts were contained in the 2014 budget.
“These new projects awarded today (yesterday) and approved by council are all provided in 2014 Appropriation Act of the National Assembly. So, if the National Assembly approves budgetary proposals, the executive becomes duty-bound to implement them. In terms of funding, road projects don’t start and end within one budgetary year. That’s why for instance the first project I announced with a completion period of 58 months, the Bodo-Boni Road, you can begin to see that that’s almost about five years. And you’ve a five-year budgetary plan for that particular project. So, you don’t expect to start a project in January and end in December, no. What we’ve done is consistent with the 2014 appropriation by the National Assembly of our country”, he said.
Responding to a question on where the government hoped to get the funds for the contracts at a time of declining oil prices, the minister stressed that Nigeria was not broke despite the oil price slump.
He said: “In terms of falling oil prices, that’s a global phenomenon, and Nigeria is not broke. The fact that the oil prices are falling, we’ve not reached a stage that Nigeria cannot continue to fund infrastructure projects in our country. Infrastructure projects help to catalyse economic growth because people must be busy; there are Nigerians who would be engaged to do these jobs and all that, the over 13,600 jobs that will be created from this project that will last for up to a period of about five years. This will get them busy and have food on their tables.
“The federal road network have a total assets value of close to N7 trillion and we can’t sit down and fold our hands, we must keep renewing and expanding our assets if we’re to support economic growth in our country and meet the objective of Vision 20:2020…Some of the projects selected are very strategic projects. For instance, the access road to Mosemi Depot along the Ikorodu-Shagamu Road is a critical road where petrol tankers go to get their products and the road is in a deplorable condition.
“Even though we intervened through the Federal Road Maintenance Agency sometime last year, it’s not far reaching enough because the scope of deterioration is beyond maintenance. So, as a responsible ministry, we’ve to move in and intervene in a very big way and this time, we’re going to be constructing a re-enforced concrete road so that we can improve the longevity of the pavement”.