With the Federal Government said to be indebted to road contractors to the tune of N392 billion, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has said the focus of the ministry in the 2021 budget is completion of some priority road projects, especially those on routes A1-A9.
Mr. Fashola told the House of Representatives Committee on Works on Thursday during the 2021 budget defence of the ministry that the disparity between the liabilities in unpaid certificates and the budgetary provisions over the years, compels the ministry to prioritize its 2021 Capital Proposals in order to make appreciable impact.
According to him, “The focus of the 2021 Budget Proposal of the Ministry remains the completion of some priority road projects, especially those on routes A1-A9.
“Given the wide disparity between the liabilities in unpaid certificates in the total sum of N 392, 019, 827, 093.87k and the budgetary provisions over the years , it has become imperative that the Ministry prioritised it’s 2021 Capital Proposals in order to make appreciable impact within the period 2021-2023, that can be physically experienced by road users”, he said.
A statement by the Ministry’s Director, Press and Public Relations, Boade Akinola said Fashola explained that “Mr President had during the presentation of the 2021 budget proposals repeatedly emphasised the necessity to focus the budget on completion of projects. Therefore, the Ministry has given priority first to eighteen (18) roads/bridges projects that have already attained some appreciable physical achievement for completion within a 12-15 months period by (December, 2021)”.
Explaining further, Fashola stated that, among the prioritised road projects are roads and bridges that lead to ports and major agricultural hubs across the six geo-political zones, pointing out that focus was also made on roads that attained 70 percent completion in order to achieve substantial completion levels.
In the same vein, the Minister told the Committee that the Ministry has categorised the total of the 711 highway projects currently being undertaken over the six geo-political zones of the country according to funding mechanism.
He listed the funding mechanism as: projects financed with Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), Highway Projects financed with Sovereign Sukuk Fund, Highway Projects financed under Tax Credit and Highway Projects funded from Multilateral Loans.
Speaking on the other targets for 2021, the Minister said “the Ministry has selected two roads and a bridge per zone for enhanced funding in the 2021 budget to achieve appreciable progress on the projects. Also targeted for adequate funding is the Federal Government of Nigeria Counterpart Fund for the projects financed by the China Exim Bank”.
Speaking on the challenges, Fashola said “the major challenge to the ministry’s efforts towards the timely completion of projects is inadequate budgetary provision and releases for projects to sustain annual cash-flow requirement levels”.
The Minister added that the additional funding from the PIDF and Sukuk Bond has helped to bring some form of funding relief in addition to the Tax Credit Scheme.
