Works ministry budgets N1bn for projects supervision

THE Federal Ministry of Works and Housing has set aside N1bn in its 2021 budget as consultancy fees to be paid to experts that would supervise its roads and bridge projects.

The ministry also proposed to spend N1bn this year to provide road signage and other road furniture on federal highways across the country.

Apart from these, the ministry set aside N15m for the development of highways design software while N250m was voted for the Recovery of Right of Way on Federal Road nationwide this year.

It proposed to spend N2.5bn as intervention fund to provide internal roads in the tertiary institutions across Nigeria this year.

The ministry equally plans to spend N2.2bn on the rehabilitation, repairs and maintenance of 31 old bridges nationwide.

This is apart from the N2bn it plans to spend on special repairs of failed sections of federal roads not under contracts.

The amounts are part of the over N276bn which the ministry voted for highways rehabilitation and repairs in the current fiscal year.

A copy of the document was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja.

In the document, the ministry allocated various sums to the rehabilitation of 711 roads and bridges at the cost of N276,243,984,521:23, to be sourced from the Capital Development Fund.

A critical study of the budget revealed that the money voted to the various highway and bridge projects were meagre and could not make much impact on the affected infrastructure.

For instance, the ministry voted N24.8m for the emergency repairs of the Ibadan-Ife dual carriageway.

It also voted additional N200m for the dualisation of the Ibadan-Ife -Ilesha Road.

The FMW & H also planned to spend a meagre N100m on the rehabilitation, construction and expansion of the Lagos – Ibadan dual carriageway this year.

Special repairs of 14 critical locations along the  Iseyin – Oyo Road, according to the document, will cost N68.2m. Punch