The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has assured the Lagos/Ibadan expressway and the Second Niger Bridge will be completed in 2022.
The Minister also explained why 21 roads across the six geopolitical zones were selected for completion by the NNPC under the Credit Tax scheme.
He, however, said that monies that funds already budgeted for such roads in the budget will be retained in the various zones and used to complete other roads.
Fashola spoke when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Works to defend the 2022 budget of his Ministry.
He however said that the Ministry was currently indebted to contractors to the tune of N420.58 billion for work already done.
He also said that the government would require about N7.430 trillion to fund about 854 ongoing highway contracts spread across the six geopolitical zones.
Responding to questions from the lawmakers, the Minister said “the Lagos/Ibadan express road is scheduled for completion in 2022. At the moment, we have done cumulatively about 90 kilometers in sections one and two.
“For the second Niger Bridge, the plan is to complete it in 2022 and it is on schedule. The contractors tell us that the bridges will be fully connected by the end of quarter one in 2022.
“So, by the end of the first quarter, you can walk on it from the beginning to the end. We lost some time during the COVID but they are working to gain the time lost.”
Speaking on the on tax credit, he said: “This scheme was initiated by the previous administration. So, it is an inherited policy but it was not implemented. It was in 2016/2017 when we were looking for how to fund the budget that I came across it and the first project was the Obajana/Kabba road.
“The policy we inherited had a sunset date and so was going to lapse and we thought this was a useful way of finding money to fund some projects and so, we recommended to Mr President and he approved that we should continue with it. We then set up a team and certain governance rules were put up.
“Right now, there is a committee that sits in governance over the scheme headed by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning. Nothing moves unless it passes through that committee.”
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
