Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has disclosed that the Federal Government owes various contractors N336 billion.
Fashola made this known during an interview with Arise Television while speaking on the challenges being faced in the Ministry which he supervises.
He said only N27 billion has been paid so far to the owed contractors while more certificates are piling up for the contracts that have not been paid.
Fashola stressed;
Our debts as of the end of July, our outstanding and unpaid certificates, for example, were in the area of N336 billion. Now, the release we have from the ministry of finance for the second quarter is N27 billion. Then we have the Sukuk N162 billion.
So, if you add that up, we are still way behind and more certificates are piling up for work that we haven’t paid. When you divide N162 billion by 44 roads, what is left? That defines where we are in terms of the funding challenge.
The Minister stated that Aliko Dangote and some other private individuals had utilised the road infrastructure tax credit scheme meant to see the private sector constructing roads in exchange for tax reliefs.
He said projects like the Second Niger Bridge were being undertaking by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.
Fashola during the interview stressed that the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency had listed about 192 roads for repairs in the next 12 months, adding that 37 bridges were going through maintenance.
He noted;
At this moment, for example, FERMA is going to undertake 192 road repairs and maintenance over the next 12 months. They just sent me the implementation plan on Friday last week and they are good to go.
Fashola, while calling for the return of tollgates on major roads expressed;
I can’t sit here in judgement over the circumstances that led to the removal of tollgates because I don’t have the full facts on why the government of the day took that decision but in Yoruba and other languages, they say beheading is not the cure of headache.
