The Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the sum of N995 million to acquire I.T highway management system equipment to monitor road projects and for road rehabilitation in Zamfara.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed this to State House Correspondents at the end of the Council meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Fashola said the sum of N203 million would be used by the ministry to procure a device to improve its capacity to monitor not only contract performance but also road maintenance.
“The Ministry of Works and Housing presented two memoranda to the Council. The first was a memorandum for a contract for the design and deployment of a contract performance and compliance for highway and road access management system for N203,845,332.59,” Fashola said.
Fashola stressed the need for the road monitoring device stating that the Ministry has over 13, 000 kilometres of road network at different stages of maintenance and operations.
“This is an information and communication technology device being procured by the ministry in order to improve its capacity to monitor not only contract performance but also maintenance of these roads and to empower not only its 36 Comptrollers of the states in the federation but also the six Zonal Directors, to improve our service delivery,” he said.
“The importance of deploying ICT now would perhaps better be appreciated when it is understood that we have over 13, 000 kilometres of road network at different stages of construction or rehabilitation as at the end of Dec. 2020.
“Those 13, 000 kilometres are manifest in over 700 different contracts.
“It’s so complex that some of these roads are so long. So, you have five different contractors for example, we have five contractors handling the Kano-Maiduguri, same for Benin-Lokoja.
“So, we have different contracts to monitor and manage. We will deploy ICT there and at full deployment, citizens will also become our army of reporters providing us with information so that we can respond more quickly.
“This will be a web-based reporting and monitoring system,” Fashola said.
Fashola added that the sum of N792 was approved as ratification for the repair of the roads in Zamfara State in 2016, which were destroyed by heavy rainfall.
“The rain washed out Gumi bridge, washed-out Daki-takwas, Kebbi to Sokoto State border, Gusau to Talatu Mafara to Sokoto border,” he said.
What you should know
- Nairametrics reported in December 2020, that the Federal Executive Council approved the total sum of N8.1 billion for the rehabilitation of roads in 10 states across the country and the FCT.
- Babatunde Fashola also stated that the Ministry’s priority in its 2021 budget is to complete already ongoing road and bridge projects across the nation.