FG owes road contractors N765bn, says Fashola

Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, says the federal government owes road contractors the sum of N765 billion as of October 2022.

Fashola disclosed this on Tuesday while defending the budget of his ministry before the house of representatives committee on works.

He said the sum of N110.5 billion was released to the ministry and utilised for payment of part of the outstanding certificates for executed works on roads and bridges in the 2022 budget.

“As of October, 2022, the ministry has cumulative unpaid certificates in the sum of N765,017,139,752.92 for ongoing highway and bridge projects,” Fashola said.

The minister lamented the inability of the country to finance its obligations and the poor allocations to projects in the budget.

According to Fashola, there is an inadequacy of annual budget provisions where N100 million or N200 million was provided for roads costing twenty or more billion.

Fashola said the ministry needs N1.2 trillion for the execution of highway projects, but only N198.9 billion has been allocated under the budget envelope in 2023 for the roads.

However, he said despite the dire financial situation, “20 major highways projects have so far been completed in 2022 and are ready for commissioning.”

“The total cost of the completed projects is in the sum of N444,322,123,808.61 and they cover a total length of 379.677km,” he said.

Fashola also gave updates on the presidential infrastructure development fund (PIDF), sukuk funding, and the tax credit scheme.

“A total of six selected critical projects are being funded under the 2022 PIDF project which is managed by the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA),” he said.

“As of date, a total sum of N754,790,502,612.80 has been certified out of the sum of N1,314,753,921,766.72. This translates to a performance of 57.41 percent.”

Fashola further said 71 selected critical projects are being funded under the 2021 sovereign sukuk issuance which is managed by the Debt Management Office (DMO).

He said a total sum of N157.9 billion has been drawn out of the sum of N210.6 billion.

The minister disclosed that NNPC Limited has released N196 billion for roads under the tax credit scheme out of the N662 billion approved by the federal executive council (FEC).