Senate scraps FERMA, establishes Federal Road Authority

The senate on Thursday passed a bill scrapping the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and replaced it with Federal Roads Authority (FRA).

The bill, sponsored by Kabiru Gaya, an All Progressives Congress (APC) senator from Kano state, came up for the third reading at plenary before it was passed through a unanimous vote by the senators.

The senate, however, rejected the report on Road Funds Bill, stepping it down for further legislative action.

The proposed Road Funds Bill has generated controversy over alleged plans to introduce additional N5 fuel levy as one of the major sources of financing the fund.

Gaya, while speaking in favour of the bill, said it would “provide a predictable funding for roads in Nigeria”.

He said the bill would create an enabling environment for effective participation of public-private-partnership.

The lawmaker also said the idea of road funds was not new, citing examples from countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, Togo and the United States where funds were generated from fuel levy.

He said N94 billion can be generated annually from fuel levy to help fund roads in the country.

He added that the levy would be paid directly into signatory account of the national road funds while the Nigeria Customs Service would be responsible for the remittance.

Contributing to the debate on the bill, Kabiru Marafa, an APC senator from Zamfara state, said it was “not entirely correct” that the proposed N5 fuel levy was captured in the industry’s template.

Marafa said the plan to introduce the levy “would further put pressure on an already stressed petroleum downstream sector and cause hardship for the people”.

He, therefore, advised the senate committee on works to explore other areas such as toll fee or any other road taxes, rather than the proposed levy.

In his remarks, Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, who presided at plenary, said the senate had no plan to increase the pump price of petroleum products.

The report was subsequently stepped down to enable other relevant committees to go through the content of the bill.