President Muhammadu Buhari is currently considering alternative sources of funds, aside budgetary provisions, for execution of road projects across the country.
Briefing State House Correspondents after meeting with the President, Mr. Dauda Kigbu, Permanent Secretary, ministry of works, disclosed that Buhari was passionate and committed to the development of the country.
Kigbu said “The President is committed to developing this country and he is passionate about roads because roads are central to national development. He confirmed that he will look into the suggestion because if you look at the multilateral support, for example, it always have some moratorium period, a reasonable period for repayment and the interest charged is almost one per cent.”
On which of the projects the President considered important, Kigbu said “The projects span across the entire country and I will not be able to tell you that one is more important than the other because you know the complexity of this country.
I can however tell you that we are working right now on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway; we are also looking at Enugu-Port Harcourt Road and Mokwa-Bida Road as well as a number of others across the country.”
Asked what he told Buhari at the meeting “I took the President through the activities of the Ministry of Works. As you may be aware, 90 per cent of the ministry’s mandate is mainly on roads.
I went through all the major projects across the country and I emphasised the need of seeking other windows of funding outside of the national budget, particularly looking at PPP model as well as looking at various supports like multilateral supports from agencies such as the World Bank, African Development Bank and similar bodies.”
On the state of the second Niger Bridge, he said “The second Niger Bridge, as we speak, there are ongoing activities, particular early works. Remember that that particular project is under the PPP which I have elaborately mentioned.”
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