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 at date, the government is committed to highway contractors to the tune of about N10.4tn, while a total of about N765bn are unpaid certificates for executed works.
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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.
“These are the people activities behind the kilometers (of constructed road),” he said, adding that the ministry had tracked the creation of 339,955 employment across road projects.
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.
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“Construction companies don’t buy diesel; they buy from the market. All of these suppliers are small businesses who benefit from and are impacted by what we do.”
The minister also said the contractors had used 1.6 million tonnes of cement, adding that, “These are activities going on, impacting people beyond what we do here.”
He stressed that 512,000 tonnes of reinforcement, 3,371,000 tonnes of bitumen, among other materials, had been used for the projects.
Fashola further said, “It is to be noted that as at October, 2022, the ministry had a cumulative unpaid certificates in the sum of N765.017bn for ongoing highway and bridge projects. Apart from the pressure of resources to pay, there is the inadequacy of annual budget provisions where N100m or N200m was provided for roads costing N20bn or more.
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“In spite of all odds, 20 major highway projects have so far been completed in 2022 and are ready for commissioning. The total cost of the completed projects is in the sum of N444.322,123,808.61 and they cover a total length of 379.677km. Additionally, there are 59 major highways/bridges priority projects that are at advanced level, to be completed within 2022-2023, with a total contract sum of N60,961,187,130.71.”
Fashola also mentioned that the ministry had started an intensive bridge maintenance program to ensure the major assets could be used, and he added that bridges were important buildings that ensured connectivity throughout the federal road network.
“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.
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While the ministry’s overhead costs for 2022 were N627.001 million, the N365.750 million issued for the period of January to July, or 58.33 percent, left an unpaid balance of N261.250 million.
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