Nigeria needs N3tn to fix roads – COREN

A bad road in the South-East

The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria on Monday disclosed that Nigeria required about N3tn to address the massive road infrastructure deficit in the country.

COREN President, Mr. Kasim Ali, stated this in Abuja at the Public Hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Works.

The hearing was on the repeal of the Federal Roads

Maintenance Agency Act 2002 and on Federal Roads Authority Bill, 2016 and National Roads Fund Establishment Bill.

Ali, who expressed support for the bills, said that the current institutional framework for the management and funding of roads in Nigeria was outdated, inappropriate and needed to be reformed.

He stressed the need for sustainable funding mechanism of road projects in the country for improved autonomy in road management.

He said, “Establishment of the National Roads Fund will be repository for revenues accruing from road-user related charges for financing, development, rehabilitation and maintenance.

“Other activities related to the provision of national roads will promote an effective road management system in Nigeria.”

In his presentation, the Minister of Works, Lands and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, lauded the bills’ initiative.

The minister called for consolidation of the five legislative frameworks regulating the road sectors into one, stressing that multiple laws and regulatory agencies would discourage investors.

 

He argued that the proposed legislation would help in improving the ease of doing business in Nigeria by eliminating various bottlenecks that could hamper private sector investment.

Fashola insisted on the need for upward review of the sanctions that will serve as deterrent to violators of regulations, adding that such sanction should be cheaper to comply with than cheaper to violate.

He also emphasised the need for national consensus on policies and programmes.

He advised politicians to desist from making political statements that could scare investors, especially threats of revoking concession agreements if their political parties were voted into power.

The Acting Director- General, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Mr. Jonathan Juma, in his submission said that $2bn was required by Federal Government to kick-start massive rehabilitation of roads.

He said that the rehabilitation would be across the country as a prelude to the introduction of user charges, including toll gates.

Juma called for injection of funds either through capital market, pension fund or international sources for road sector development, since a viable means of repayment had been identified.

He said that this would ensure adequate funding of the road sector infrastructure.

He explained that introduction of the user charges would generate 250, 000 jobs annually in the construction and allied sector and 10, 000 jobs in e-ticketing and IT support infrastructure.

In his remarks, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Works, Sen. Kabiru Gaya, chided Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency for failing to remit the five per cent pump price levy to government.

The five per cent, according to him, is worth N771bn, which should have accrued since 2007 to government coffer as provided by the FERMA Act.

He said, “The sum of N536 bn accrued from Premium Motor Spirit, N174bn from AGO were to be shared on the basis of 60 per cent to Federal Road Maintenance Agency and 40 per cent to state governments for road maintenance.”

Gaya, who expressed support for the passage of the bills, said that Lagos-Ibadan Expressway needed N150bn to be completed while Abuja-Kano road required N130bn to be completed.

According to him, this warrants the need for private sector funding.

“The fund which is expected to be sourced from capital market, inject the sum of N300 billion, is expected to be generated yearly from user charges through commuter contributions and other charges for road maintenance.”

On his part, the Chairman, Board of Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Mr. Kyari Bukar, who put the value of Nigerian road assets at N4.57tn, said that about N500bn was spent yearly on operating cost.

He also decried that 10 hours man-hour loss estimated at N1.02tn was incurred yearly due to the poor conditions of Nigerian roads.

Earlier, the Chairman of House Committee on Works, Rep. Toby Okechukwu, urged stakeholders to make informed inputs that would enable the house to come out with an implementable law.

He added that such law would assist the nation in putting its road network in shape.

The Speaker of the house, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, who declared the hearing open, said that the bills were long overdue and expressed the determination of the house in enacting laws that would stand the test of time.

Dogara, who was represented by the Deputy Leader of the House, Rep. Buba Jibrin, noted that a road fund was imperative in view of the deplorable nature of federal roads.