Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Works and Housing, has said that a “reasonable” amount of the 2020 Budget of his Ministry would be channelled towards completion of about forty-seven priority on-going road projects in the country.
According to Fashola, the Ministry has about 424 road projects spread across the country. Out of this, the ministry had categorised about 47 as priority projects to be completed, he said.
He explained that the 47 roads were chosen by the Ministry because the Ministry does not have enough resources to work on all the 524 road projects at the same time. The 47 projects have reached 70 percent completion level, he said, adding that it would be better to complete those roads.
“If we get these roads working, Nigeria will get back to its feet,” Fashola said. He added that it would lead to ease of doing business in the country’s ports, movement of energy and fuel across the country, lead to the evacuation of goods from our ports and movement of agricultural goods across the country”, Fashola said in a statement issued on Friday.
Speaking during a National Assembly House of Representative Committee on Works interactive session, the Minister disclosed that no part of the country was left out in the road projects, but pointed out that the big problem was the ability to complete the on-going work on the roads because of funding constraint.
He therefore called on the legislators to join hands with the Ministry in adopting and supporting the policy statement of President Muhammadu Buhari on completing all on-going projects instead of starting new ones, stressing that “completing them is what will impact the lives of Nigerians”.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman, House Committee on Works, Abubakar Kabir Abubakar, said the purpose of the interactive session was to find out what challenges the Ministry was facing and how to find solutions to them.
“We are not here to interrogate anybody, but rather to work together to create a positive impact in the lives of Nigerians,” he said.
HARRISON EDEH, ABUJA
