MINISTER FOR WORKS SAYS NIGERIA GOVT. ARE STILL OWING ROAD CONTRACTORS
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola says debt that the federal government owes contractors for 711 ongoing road projects nationwide is at N392 billion.
He made the statement at the ministry’s 2021 budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Works.
According to Fashola, the N392 billion debt profile was higher than the N276 billion proposed as budgetary allocation for road projects in 2021.
Quoting Fashola, “We do not have the resources that we need to fix our road infrastructure at once – the very reason why we need to prioritise what 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 goodwill comes out of more new road projects now”.
Fashola said that in order to remedy the situation, the 711 projects have been categorised into four areas for funding and execution.
These areas includes, highway projects financed with Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund ( PIDF), highway projects financed with the Sovereign Sukuk Fund, highway projects financed under tax credit and lastly highway projects funded from multilateral loans.
Fashola advised that with the situation on the ground, new projects would be stopped while ongoing ones should be prioritised towards achieving completion of some of them.
Source: This Day