The Federal Government through the Ministry of Works has disclosed that it has N431bn ready for contractors.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, stated this while meeting with all contractors handling road dualisation projects and all zonal Directors of the Ministry at the Ministry’s office in Abuja on Thursday.
The Minister also announced the Ministry’s intention to focus on most of the dualised roads across the country.
He said, “Why we are here now is to announce our intention to face most of the dualised roads in the country.
“ I want to remind you that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is funding 50 per cent of the contract sum and that funding goes up to 2025.
“We have N431bn of money that is ready for contractors to clear but there is no certificate for it, if you are doing a job under Phase 1, make an effort to make claims, if your job involves augmentation go back to your Regional Director for understanding before I sign the certificate, any certificate I sign now, I have to take account for it even when I have left office.“
Speaking through the Director of Information Press and Public Relations Unit, Blessing Lere-Adams, Umahi further tasked the contractors to stick to one lane if their job had not gone up to 50 per cent completion, adding that he had also come up with a Performance Bond which meant that all new projects would be guaranteed for 10years.
He urged all contractors that have built roads that cannot last up to ten years to write to the Ministry to either stop work or rebuild the road to last 10 years.
He, however, warned contractors that he would not listen to stories of failures on the roads due to overloading, he enjoined all the contractors to cooperate with him on building roads with concrete technology as it was done both in India and Singapore.
Umahi also told the contractors and stakeholders to key into the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, he said this Administration has 18000kilometre of roads and inherited a contract sum of about N14.1 trillion and out of which N4trillion is being paid in all those projects, some of the projects have lasted between 10 to 20years.
The Minister said some contractors have jerked up the contractor sum by a hundred per cent and that is the reason they are not getting paid.
“We are going back to the original concept of the projects and the necessity of any additional works and also see how we get a fair deal, expecting an endorsement from the Ministry of what is not acceptable to Nigerian Society of Engineers is not possible “ the Minister said.
I Umahi also confirmed that “Mr President understands road infrastructure, If I come before him with a contract of N44bn reviewed to N144bn contract sum, I must be able to provide details of how the cost came about.”