For the building of numerous roadways around the nation and certificates of completion, the Federal Government owes contractors approximately N11.16 trillion.
In support of his ministry’s proposed budget in the 2023 Appropriations Bill, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Minister of Works and Housing, said that his department has so far awarded 1,642 highway contracts for 1,632 projects, totaling N10.395 trillion.
Asked to “take a bow and go” by the MPs following his presentation before the House of Representatives Committee on Works in Abuja on Tuesday, Fashola said, “The main impediment to highways development in the country remains inadequate finance. As of now, the government has roughly N10.4 trillion in obligations to highway contractors, and there are approximately N765 billion in unpaid certificates for completed work.
The minister read to the committee from his written presentation and stated that of the approximately 13,000 kilometers of roads currently being (re)constructed, the regime has built highways totaling around 8,000 kilometers.
He stated that the ministry had documented the creation of 339,955 jobs across road projects, saying, “These are the human activities behind the kilometers (of road constructed).”
He said that 1,663,954 linear meters of lane marking, which were previously invisible on our roads but are now starting to surface, contributed to the creation of some of the jobs.
The minister also mentioned that as of 2015, there were 250,583 missing traffic signs.
The construction firms, according to Fashola, used 1,002,960,851 liters of diesel for a variety of projects.
The minister added, “These are operations going on, influencing people beyond what we do here,” after stating that the contractors used 1.6 million tonnes of cement.
He emphasized that the projects had used, among other resources, 3,371,000 tonnes of bitumen and 512,000 tonnes of reinforcement.
Fashola added that bridges were essential buildings that ensured connectivity throughout the federal road network and mentioned that the ministry has started an intensive bridge maintenance program to ensure the major assets could be used.
“Some bridges have never been maintained since they were constructed over 40 years ago. Furthermore, illegal commercial (human) activities, which are detrimental to these national assets, contributed to their deterioration,” he stressed.
While the ministry’s overhead costs for 2022 were N627.001 million, the N365.750 million issued from January to July, or 58.33 percent, left an unpaid balance of N261.250 million.
