"FG owes road contractors N392bn" – Fashola

 

Minister of Works and Housing Raji Fashola has revealed that road construction firms in the country are being owed N392billion by the federal government.

The former Governor of Lagos state said this during his budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Works.

Fashola who disclosed that the firms are handling 711 road projects across the country, stated that the N392billion debt accrued is far higher than the N276billion proposed as budgetary allocation for road projects in 2021 Appropriation Bill.

The Minister further revealed that N6.62trillion is required to fund the 711 road projects but due to scare resources, the Federal Government has no choice but to prioritize the important roads.

He said;

“With the situation on ground, a stop has come for new projects and need for prioritizing of existing ones towards achieving completion of some of them.

“We do not have the resources that we need to fix our road infrastructure at once. The very reason why we need to prioritize what we want to do.

“The situation on ground requires us to cut our coat according to our cloth and not according to our size because no good will come out of more new road projects now.”

It was further gathered that the 711 projects have been categorized into four different areas of funding and execution.

Fashola said the first categorisation is the Highway Projects Financed with Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) which covers projects such as Lagos – Shagamu – Ibadan dual carriage way, 2nd Niger Bridge and rehabilitation of Abuja – Kaduna – Kano dual carriage way.

The second categorization are Highways Projects Financed with the Sovereign Sukuk Fund totalling 44 roads across the six geo- political zones.

Third in the categorisation are Highways Project Financed under Tax Credit like the Lokoja- Obajana – Kabba – Ilorin road, Apapa – Wharf Road in Lagos State, Apapa-Oworonsoki-Ojota Expressway, etc.

The fourth categorisation are Highways Projects funded from Multilateral Loans. Fashola added that his Ministry would prioritise 18 road projects that have already attained some appreciable physical achievement for completion within a 12 – 15 month period (December 2021).