Minister of works and Housing,Mr Babatunde Fashola has received the Outline Business Case Certificate of Compliance for 12 federal road corridor for concessioning by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Agency ( ICRC).
Receiving the document from the Acting Director General ( ICRC), Mr Michael Ohiari, during a formal handover ceremony on Friday,in Abuja, Fashola said the concession option is another way of financing the construction and maintenance of federal roads which is also key to the Buhari’s administration.
He said”We started with 25 roads and we are now on 45 roads. So we are increasing the number of roads but the pool of funds is not growing as we we would have wanted.
“So, now, we’re moving to another possible source, which is direct private sector investment, either in constructing, completing and in maintaining our highways, and that’s why we are here
He said in selecting the 12 routes taken from one or two routes from each geo-politcal zone, the government considered issues of sensitivity,in ensuring that no part of the country was marginalised .
According to the Minister, the next stage is to bring the matter before the Federal Executive Council FEC for approval adding that support was needed among departments of the public and private sector.
The 12 routes for the pilot phase are Benin-Asaba (125km),Abuja-Lokoja (193km), Kano-Katsjna (150km) , Onitsha-Owerri (161km), Sagamu-Benin (258km) and Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga (!122km)
Others are Kano-Shuari (100km), Potiskum-Damaturu (96.24km), Lokoja- Benin (270 km), Enugu-Port Harcourt ( 200km) , Ilorin-Jebba (129km), Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta (80km), and Lagos-Badagry-Seme Border!79km).
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Babangida Hussaini said the 12 Highways represent 1,963km and 5.6 percent of Nigeria’s 35,000km federal highway network with N1. 134,690,048,000,00 trillion as estimated private sector investment required for the development and maintenance of the routes.
