The Minister for Works and Housing Mr Babatunde Fashola on Thursday said the ministry needs N255 billion to fund some of the ongoing major roads construction across the country.
The said the N157 billion approved by the National Assembly in the 2020 budget is grossly inadequate to meet the responsibilities expected of the works component of the ministry.
He spoke when he appeared before the Committee on works of the House of Representatives, to defend the allocation to works by the lawmakers.
The minister complained that the N157b capital budgetary allocation to his ministry is too little, as it is not enough to pay contractors for jobs already done.
He said the Ministry needs N306 billion to pay contractors for jobs already done, while N2.93 billion was pending in unpaid certificates under the multilateral-funded projects.
The minister disclosed that the Federal Government has about 524 ongoing road projects across the country, besides four multilateral-funded road projects, another 81 roads, being embarked upon under the Presidential Infrastructural Development Fund (PIDF) and 45 others being funded under the Sukuk bond.
He said the ministry is focusing on roads that help to open up the economy and make the ease of doing business less cumbersome.
The minister listed some of the projects under the PIDF to include the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road, the Second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan Express Road, the Mambilla Hydro project and the East-West road.
He therefore appealed to the lawmakers to make more money available to the ministry in order to ensure that none of the projects gets stalled for lack of funds.
He said the Federal Government would no longer be liable for the payment of refunds to any states which repairs federal roads within their states.
He advised the states to concentrate on state-funded roads, saying that they could only get involved with federal roads if they will not ask for refund from the Federal Government.
Fashola said the stoppage is informed by the lean budget.
“When we came in, we inherited quite a number of such debts from states which repaired Federal roads and asked for refunds. The President directed that we pay all those that were approved by the previous government,” he said.
