$93 million approved for road construction in Nigeria
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Nigeria has approved $13 million for the Benin-Adumagbae-Igba-Akure road in Edo and Ondo State.
The report has been confirmed by Minister of State for Works and Housing, Abubakar Aliyu who explained that work had stopped due to lack of funding but continued that the contract has been reviewed and the contractor will resume works.
“We have inherited the project and reviewed the contract from the original sum of $10 million inclusive of VAT and tax, an increase of about $4 million. It was then further reviewed down through the processes of going to BPP (Bureau of Public Procurement) to the total sum of $13 million,” he said.
This follows an announcement of the approval of $80.6 million for the construction of two roads linking two Northern states to the border of Niger Republic.
Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, said the approval was the result of an MoU presented to the council for the construction of a 46km road from Balle in Sokoto State to Niger Republic border – at an expected cost of $26.2m.
Another project for $54.4 million was approved for a 50km road from Kunia in the State of Jigawa.
Fashola reported: “The Ministry of Works and Housing presented one memorandum for the award of roads. The first is Balle-Kurdulla-Niger Republic border road in Sokoto which was awarded to Messrs North Sea Limited joint venture; the second one is for Kunya – Niger Republic border phase II which is in Jigawa State,” he said.
Fashola reported that the approval met consideration for the Nigerian Economic Recovery and Growth plan and the additional mandate to improve infrastructure. He said further that the construction of these two roads would enable cross border trade, a necessary consideration in light of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
“The markets in that area of the country do a lot of trade across borders. So, this is a good boost for business as well,” he shared.
In 2004 the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) began to rehabilitate the 32,000kms of federal roads in Nigeria, followed by more a substantial rehabilitation works programme in 2005.