The federal government has approved 92 road repair contracts under the supervision of the Federal Emergency Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, as part of plans to move Nigeria out of recession.
The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning had hinted that the federal government was driving recovery plans through the aggressive implementation of the Economic Sustainability Plan implementation covering various aspects to take the country out of recession.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Wednesday, also revealed that the projects are part of measures by the government to re-inject funds into the economy that recently contracted by 3.62% in the third quarter
The projects, he said were approved by the Economic Sustainability Committee set up to mitigate the impact of Covid lockdown on the economy
One of the responsibilities of FERMA is to execute extensive labour works on road repairs and the budget of 2020 which was amended to deal with Covid impact, had provisions to boost the activities of FERMA, amongst others.
Fashola stated that following the contractions, the government opted to strengthen FERMA which had a total of 191 road repairs, rehabilitation, intervention projects, ongoing, nationwide.
Fashola disclosed that 92 of those projects have been awarded by FERMA at its threshold level, while 89 of them have been approved by the ministry at the ministerial tenders board threshold level.
“So, all of those projects are now being issued letters of award, mobilization, and others” he stated.
According to him, 10 of the projects that require approval were sent to the Federal Executive Council because of their financial threshold level.
The roads include the Gasamu-Hamshi-Gogoram road in Yobe State for N14.528billion awarded to MotherCat, the link road connecting Uneme-Tusamu-Odoga to Okpekpe in Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State for N991.851million, and Mamabu Donga Local Government Area road in Taraba South Local Government Area of Taraba State, awarded to Wishchina Engineering Limited for N6.397 billion.
“These are the late third quarter, early fourth quarter interventions to respond to the Covid impact on the economy.
So, you see efforts to do that and so many other departments doing different things. This is our responsibility.
Fashola who also responded to alleged N4.6bn paid into private accounts said he issued a written response to that irresponsible publication.
“Anybody who cares to know will know that ministers don’t manage accounts and finances of ministries. The people who do so Directors of Finance and Account who are the staff of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation. Ministers don’t sign cheques. We don’t disburse cash. We don’t manage cash.
