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| Mr.Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works & Housing |
MINISTER
of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji (SAN) has assured that over 200
roads worth N2 trillion inherited from the Goodluck Jonathan administration
will be completed across the country this year.
The
minister while disclosing this during a budget defence session with the House
of Representatives’ Committees on Power, Works and Housing and FERMA hinted
that the Federal Government at the moment owes road contractors over N1
trillion on the projects awarded by the previous administration.
Fashola
added that 206 projects were in diverse stages of completion, while
contractors, consultants for engineering design and supervision consultants
among others have not been paid.
Giving
a breakdown on the 2016 budget proposal for his three-in-one ministry, Fashola
said that out of the N433 billion proposed for the three sectors, N208 billion
is for roads, N99 billion for power and N66 billion for housing.
He
however frowned over inadequate funding in the proposal which he stated was the
major challenge confronting the present administration of President Mohammed
Buhari.
“The
challenge facing the ministry towards the completion of various projects is
inadequate funding provision for projects to sustain annual cashflow
requirement levels.
“This
underscores the need for diversifying the sources of funding highways projects.
In his
action plan, he presented a three-year plan (2006-2018) for the completion of
major economic roads linking different states and regions totaling 6,000
kilometres.
Fashola
shortlisted the priorities of the present administration on road construction to
include the Sokoto-Kantagora-Makera Road, Katsina-Kano-Maiduguri Road,
HAdeja-Nguru-Gashua Road, Ilorin_jebba-MAkowa Road, Lagos-Ibadan Road,
Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, Calabar-Adokpani-Ikpt Road and Ajibandele-Sagamu
Road.
He
used the opportunity to shed light on the delay of the Lagos-Ibadan Express
road stating that delay was prompted by the concession agreement between the
Federal Government and Bi-Courtney limited which was marred by crises adding
that the project could not go on due to court injunctions granted by the court
as sought by the Bi-Courtney limited.
“The
brief I have was first, there was documented advice to government that they
should have never issued that concession. But government went ahead to issue
and this perhaps explains the inability to perform.
“So
many other things happened, like a change of government. But the last
administration took the view that they wanted out of the concession and the
company went to court seeking to be compensated and that the concession be
restored.
“While
that was going on, government set up a finance and management agreement and
that’s where Motorways came in. Money was raised by Motorway to fund the
contractors, RCC and Julius Berger. Again, Bi-Courtney went to court and
secured an order stopping any of the lenders under the Motorways contract.
The Chairman of the
Committee, Hon. Toby Okechukwu however enjoined the minister that the ministry
should also be innovative towards working out other sources of funding to
ensure the actualization of its goals.
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