The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has stated that the Ministry’s priority in its 2021 budget is to complete already ongoing road and bridge projects across the nation.
Fashola disclosed this during the Ministry’s budget defence at the House of Representatives Committee on Works, on Thursday in Abuja.
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What you should know
Nairametrics reported this week that the Federal Executive Council approved N87 billion to upscale the country’s road infrastructure in the North-Central, South-west, middle belt and South-South geo-political zones.
The funds would be used to construct a road linking Shehu Yar’adua Way with the Kubwa Expressway in the Federal Capital Territory, Oyo–Ogbomosho and the Loko – Oweto bridge.
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The Ministry disclosed to the House Committee that President Muhammadu Buhari stressed the need for project completion, which means the Ministry would priotize ongoing projects that will see major phases of completion by 2021.
“Mr President had during the presentation of the 2021 budget proposals repeatedly emphasized the necessity to focus the budget on completion of projects. Therefore, the ministry has given priority first to 18 roads/bridges projects that have already attained some appreciable physical achievement for completion within a 12–15 month period by (December, 2021),” Mrs Bolade Akinola, Director, Press and Public Relations of the Ministry said.
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Fashola added that the road projects being focused on were mainly infrastructure leading to major economical centres like agicultural hubs and ports in all 6 regions.
He added that 711 road projects had been shortlisted for infrastructure Funding Mechanisms, which are projects to be financed with through initiatives including Sovereign Sukuk Fund, Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) and Infrastructure projects financed through foreign debt.
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Nairametrics reported in June that the Federal Government would fix 44 roads with the Sukuk funds raised in the bond market, when the sovereign Sukuk Symbolic cheque of N162.55 billion was presented to Fashola by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed in Abuja.