Babatunde Fashola who is the Nigerian Minister of Works and Housing, has recently made a statement that Nigeria currently needs up to ₦1.2trillion for some new roads and some bridges in the country but the Nigerian government is only able to provide ₦198.9 billion.
Fashola, who had appeared in order to defend the budget of his ministry before the House of Representatives Committee on Works on Tuesday also lamented the disparity between the cost of highways and the envelope budget which had been provided by the government.
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He also stated that in some instances, FG provides ₦100 million for roads that cost over ₦20billion.
“There is the inadequacy of annual budget provisions where N100M or N200M was provided for roads costing twenty or more Billion,” Fashola said.
Fashola also added that “the actual 2023 indicative cost of execution of highway projects is ₦1,256,290,524,288.32, and the actual Budget Envelope of ₦198,964,003,907.00,” he said and that the disparity has huge debt owed to road contractors. According to Fashola, the government owes contractors over ₦700 billion.
“The Ministry has a cumulative unpaid certificates in the sum of N765,017,139,752.92 for ongoing highway and bridge projects,” the former Lagos State governor said.
He informed the lawmakers that the government made interventions in various tertiary Institutions in the Country, completing a total of 85.46km roads.
In another report, Nigeria’s Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola on Thursday, condemned certain actions and comments which has been attributed to Nigerians and politicians ahead of the 2023 elections.
The former Lagos State governor appealed to citizens of the country to stop exaggerating Nigeria’s problems while putting the country up for ridicule.
Fashola made this assertion yesterday in Lagos in an address at TheNiche Annual Lecture themed ‘2023 Elections and the Future of Nigeria’s Democracy’.
