Roads, bridges top infrastructure challenges facing incoming Works Minister

As Nigerians await the confirmation of the ministerial nominees whose names have been sent to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari, their focus is already on whoever becomes the next Works Minister with regards to the enormous infrastructure challenges in the country.

Nigeria has a mind-boggling infrastructure deficit which experts say requires trillions of naira to bridge. This poses a lot of challenges which negatively impact on critical sectors of the economy, including transportation, agriculture, industries, maritime.

“Of all the infrastructure challenges we have in this country,  good motorable roads remain the single largest problem that in my opinion, should be a major concern for the incoming minister for works”, Johnson Chukwuma, a structural engineer, told BusinessDay in a telephone interview.

Chukwuma observed that Nigeria’s poor infrastructure capital was the reason for the underdevelopment of such critical sectors of the economy as real estate, maritime, aviation, agriculture and industries. He pointed out that the high cost of housing in the country and its staggering  deficit was a direct fallout of the lack of access roads to locations where cheap housing could be developed.

According to Adetokunbo Ajayi, President/CEO, Propertygate Investment and Development Plc, roads are supremely important in acceleration of housing delivery, as vast developable land remains virtually inaccessible, due to acute deficit in road infrastructure.

The Federal Government, he said, should embark on deliberate infrastructure provision, especially major transportation-infrastructure, to stimulate massive housing projects. He said deliberate policies and incentives to drive investment into, and strengthen the sub-sector must be put in place.

Former minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, disclosed during an inspection of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway reconstruction/rehabilitation work in Lagos, that the Federal Government was prioritising federal roads which led to areas with major economic activity.

“It remains to be seen what the former minister could do with the federal roads”, an expert who did not want to be named, said, advising however, that the incoming minister should prioritise the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway for its strategic economic importance as a major route to a major source of revenue to the country. He added that all the bridges leading to the ports should be of priority to the government.

“The Lagos-Badagry Expressway, a federal road on which Lagos State government has done substantial amount of work, should be taken over by the federal government and as far as I am concerned, that should be the first port of call for the new minister because that expressway is vital not only for intermodal transportation , but more for the regional trade it will promote between Nigeria and other countries of the West Coast”, the expert said.

Other federal roads and bridges that should be of interest to the new minister include the Onitsha-Enugu Road which has remained in perpetual construction, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which has been awarded but work is at a standstill; Benin-Ore Road, which is also construction in perpetuity and Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, among others.

Deji Alli, CEO, Asset and Resource Management (ARM) Company Limited, says that in doing all this, the new minister should come out with clearly articulated targets, need-based resource allocation, reviewing of existing development guidelines, development of integrated infrastructure and encouragement of PPP as a viable development initiative.

The importance of PPP initiative for public infrastructure provision cannot be over-emphasised  but, according to Wale Babalakin, Chairman/CEO of Bi-Courtney Limited, this initiative is under serious threat from the government whose officials do not respect terms of contracts and agreements, but see private investors in public infrastructure as either competitors or inferior partners.

Babalakin is of the opinion that, if not checked, this will continue to work against efforts at overcoming the current deficit in the provision and maintenance of public infrastructure.

He says the new minister would need to address this squarely, in order to improve on the country’s infrastructure base.

Femi Akintunde, the CEO of Alpha Mead Facilities Management and Services Company Limited, agrees, stressing that the incoming minister must prioritise road  infrastructure through massive construction of road networks to be followed by a well articulated transport system to open up the country.

CHUKA UROKO