Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, convened a meeting of the Stakeholders and briefed journalists while unveiling the road projects currently undergoing rehabilitation and construction.
Also, appreciable progress has been made in the first Phase of the project, particularly the implementation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited and Federal Inland Revenue Service (NNPCL/FIRS) Second Phase for the rehabilitation and construction of 44 critical roads across the country under the Tax Credit Scheme initiative of the Federal Government.
The Meeting came barely a fortnight after the approval of the Memorandum on the proposal by the NNPC and its subsidiaries, NNPC Exploration and Production (NEPL) and NNPC Gas Infrastructure Company Limited (NGIC) to undertake the rehabilitation of 44 roads spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The selected roads, amounting to 4,554.19 kilometres, include those in the South-South zone which are the Completion of Benin-Warri Dual Carriageway, Edo/Delta States; East-West Road, (Section I) Warri-Kaiama in Delta/Bayelsa States; East-West Road (Section II –I) Port Harcourt-Ahoada in Rivers State; East-West Road (Section II-II) Ahoada-Kaiama in Rivers/Bayelsa States and East-West Road (Section III) Onne Junction-Eket in Akwa Ibom State.
Others are Dualization of East-West Road (Section IV) Eket-Oron also in Akwa Ibom; Upgrading of 15-kilometre Port Harcourt-Onne Junction (Section IIIA) in Rivers State; Construction of Eket Bypass (Dual Carriageway) in Akwa Ibom State; Dualization of Lokoja-Benin Road: Obajana Junction-Benin Section II Phase I: Okene-Auchi, Kogi/Edo States; Dualization of Lokoja-Benin Road: Obajana Junction-Benin Section III Phase I: Auchi-Ehor, Kogi/Edo States; Dualization of Lokoja-Benin Road: Obajana Junction-Benin Section IV Phase I: Ehor-Benin City; and Nembe-Brass Road in Bayelsa State. All the roads amount to a total of 1,308.3 kilometres.
The North East Zone has a total of 1,054 kilometres consisting of Rehabilitation of the Yola-Mubi-Maiduguri Road in Adamawa/Borno States; the Rehabilitation of Maiduguri – Monguno Road; Rehabilitation of Numan-Jalingo Road in Taraba/Adamawa States; Rehabilitation of Yola-Hong-Mubi Road in Adamawa State; Reconstruction of Bali-Serti-(Gashaka)-Gembu Road in Taraba State; and Rehabilitation of Yashi – Deguri – Yalo Road in Bauchi State.
North Central zone has 763.13 kilometers consisting of Rehabilitation of Minna-Zungeru-Tegina-Kontagora Road in Niger State, Section I: Minna-Tegina; Rehabilitation of Minna-Zungeru-Tegina-Kontagora Road in Niger State, Section II: Tegina-Kontagora; Shendam-Yelwa-Mato Junction-Taraba Border with Spurs in Plateau/Taraba States; Dualization of Suleija-Minna Road in Niger State: and Dualization of Lokoja-Benin Road: Obajana Junction-Benin Section I Phase I: Obajana-Okene, Kogi State.
Others include the Reconstruction of the existing Pavement and Completion of the additional Pavement on the Dualisation of the Abuja – Lokoja Highway Section Ill: Abaji – Koton Karfe Road in Abuja/ Kogi State; Construction of the Jarmai-Bashar-Zuruk-Andame-Karim Lamido Road in Plateau and Taraba States; Reconstruction and Expansion of Mararaba – Keffi Road in Nasarawa State.
According to the Ministry of Works and Housing, the North West Zone has a total of 980 Kilometres of roads being reconstructed consisting of Dualization of Zaria-Funtua-Gusau-Sokoto Road in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, and Sokoto States: Section I Zaria-Funtua-Gusau; Dualization of Zaria-Funtua-Gusau-Sokoto Road in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto States: Section II Gusau-Sokoto Road; Dualization of Zaria-Funtua-Gusau-Sokoto Road in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto States: Section II Gusau-Sokoto Road in Zamfara State; Dualization of Zaria-Funtua-Gusau-Sokoto Road in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto States: Section III Gusau-Sokoto Road in Zamfara and Sokoto States; Dualization and Construction of Kano-Kwanar Dauja-Hadejia Road in Kano/Jigawa States, Section I. Tsalle-Hadejia; Dualization and Construction of Kano-Kwanar Dauja-Hadejia Road in Kano/Jigawa States, Section II. Kano-Tsalle; and Rehabilitation of Kaduna-Pambeguwa-Jos Road in Kaduna/Plateau States.
South East has 297.52 kilometers of roads consisting of the Rehabilitation of Aba – Owerri Road NNPC Depot Expressway, Abia State; Rehabilitation of Otuocha – Anam- Nzam- Innoma-Iheaka- Ibaji Section of Otuocha – Ibaji-Odulu-Ajegwu in Anambra State; Construction of Ihiala-Orlu-Umuduru Road (Ihiala-Amaifeke Section) and Completion of Spur in Isseke Town-Amafuo-Uli in Imo/Anambra States.
It also includes the Rehabilitation of Old Enugu – Onitsha Road (Opi Junction – Ukehe Okpatu-Aboh Udi-Oji to Anambra Border)in Enugu State; the Construction of Omor-Umulokpa Road in Anambra and the Enugu States; Rehabilitation of Ozalla-Akpugo-Amagunze-Ihuokpara-Nkomoro-Isu-Onicha (Enugu-Onicha) with a Spur to Onunweke in Enugu State; and Rehabilitation of Old Enugu – Port Harcourt Road (Agbogugu-Abia Border Spur to Mmaku) in Enugu State.
The South-West has a total of 150.56 Km of roads consisting of the Rehabilitation and Expansion of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway (Agbara Junction-Nigeria/Benin Border) in Lagos State; Dualization of Akure-Ita Ogbolu-Iju-Ado Ekiti State Road, Section I: Akure – Ita Ogbolu – Iju – Ekiti State Border in Ondo State; and Dualization of Akure-Ita Ogbolu-Iju-Ado Ekiti State Road, Section II: Ita Ogbolu – Iju – Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State.
In his remarks at the Meeting and Press Briefing, Fashola described the public-private sector agreement as a very defining legacy for President Muhammadu Buhari pointing out that the impact of the “very innovative investment policy” would help Nigeria to really do business both locally and internationally being a sound infrastructure-based investment policy on which business is done.
The Minister, who recalled that back in 2015 at the inception of the Buhari Administration, contractors were being owed two to three years’ payment arrears resulting in the shutdown of many project sites and laying off of construction workers by the companies, added that the Buhari administration arrested the situation by budgetary expansion from N18 billion for the whole of Nigeria’s road by the previous administration to N260 billion in 2016.
“You were being owed”, the Minister reminded the contractors at the Meeting. “Some of the complaints that I heard at the first meetings that I had with many of you when I was first appointed Minister were that you were paid only 10 percent advance payment two or three years ago. That was how bad the construction industry was when we started”, he said adding that some of the roads were contracted back to “the private sector” to go and raise funds to finance them.