FG to prioritize critical economic roads in 2017 – Fashola

Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works, Housing and Urban Development on Thursday disclosed that the present administration will prioritize construction of economic roads and five other priority areas in 2017.

Fashola gave the assurance during the 2016 budget performance held at the instance of the joint House Committee on Works, Urban Development chaired by Toby Okechukwu.

According to him, the sum of N150.4 billion or 52 percent of capital component of the 2017 budget was proposed for such routes while N43 billion or 17.8 percent would go to the second priority roads categorised as agriculture producing hub across the country.

He also said roads related to petroleum products as well as another set of road dealing with agriculture would take N8.9 billion or three percent of the capital component of the budget.

He also said provisions are made for roads with  counterpart funding while roads within government tertiary institutions would also be given attention based on geo-political zone.

On the 2016 budget performance, Fashola disclosed tbat at least one road construction is ongoing in each of the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) across the federation.

The Minister explained that significant number of the federal roads required immediate repair when the present administration took over power in 2015, adding that about 200 legacy roads were either inadequately funded or not funded by the previous administration for average of two to three years.

Fashola who expressed delight over the recall of thousands of workers sacked by the construction companies due to non-payment of debt for over two years, noted that contractors are remobilizing to site.

He however noted that the Ministry was able to achieve 54 percent implementaion level based on the fund released totaling N139 billion out of the N260 billion appropriated for capital expenditure for the year 2016.

According to him, from the total sum of N456 billion for the three ministries in 2016, Federal Ministry of Works got the lion share of N301.850 billion out of which N284.108 billion was for capital expenditure.

“Our ability to implement the budget is almost directly related to the revenue that we receive. The more money we get, the more capacity we get,” he told the committee.

The Minister also unveiled Federal Government’s plan to recategorize some of the federal roads including Western Bye-Pass in Kaduna and Umuahia – ABA roads which have been overtaken by development and categorised as metropolitan roads.

He also emphasised that some of the roads are awaiting approval of Federal Executive Council (FEC) and Public Procurement, adding that the “objectives set to reduce the travel time of committees and easy of doing business are being achieved gradually.”

While responding to questions from some of the lawmakers on the lopsidedness of the road projects allegedly schewed in favour of the South West, Fashola argued that budget implementation was based on priority and availability funds.

He said: “Lack of information is responsible for notions like this but proper dissemination of information will help.

“I have heard severally that all monies from the Ministry were sent to the South West but the President made it clear that South West roads, second Niger bridge, Kano- Maiduguri road, Enugu-Port Harcourt road and some others should be prioritised.

“The President said it was nothing personal but that priority should be given to those roads due to their importance, the decision was purely for transport and logistics reasons”.

He explained that the menace of insurgency and  insecurity in the North-East contributed to the delay in the construction of roads in the the region.

On alternative funding of road, Fashola expressed reservation over the Public Private Partnership (PPP) of roads, saying it takes a very long time to consummate the process of concessions which the country cannot afford.

“It will take at least seven years for the process to be completed and we don’t have that luxury of time.

“We should not lose the opportunity of starting and funding the roads with our resources,” he added.