N900bn Needed for Progress on Nigerian Roads in 2016

About N900 billion would be required to make considerable progress on roads critical to national economy and linking the states, THISDAY has learnt. Also, substantial budgetary allocation would however be required in 2017 and 2018 to ensure they are all completed.

This was the position of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works, Mr. Abubakar Mogaji, who at a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Works, added that some of the money would also be deployed for work on the second Niger bridge.

He cited some of the critical roads to include Benin-Abuja road, Kano-Abuja road, Enugu-Onitsha road, Lagos- Enugu road and Enugu-Port-Harcourt road.

“Right now, the roads are in bad state, but we cannot complete them in one year, Mogaji said and added that the ministry has commitments of over N1 trillion, to its contractors.

He added that most of the road projects have been grossly under-funded resulting in slow pace of work by the contractors.

The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Toby Okechukwu directed the ministry to list all of its contracts and stages of completion, its liabilities, names of contractors, and other details, in a spreadsheet to the committee.

He also requested for a budget performance report detailing releases, so that the committee can query the Finance ministry on what is being done about the non release of funds.

Several contractors, Okechukwu disclosed, have written to the Speaker, and the parliament, complaining about their payments and seeking intervention.

Director of Planning of the Ministry, Mr. Bala Dan-Shehu disclosed that the security situation has stalled work on  roads around Maiduguri.

The committee earlier met with officials of the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation, Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and Federal School of Surveying, Oyo state.