The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has revealed that the N100 billion sourced through the Sukuk Bond, was yet to be released to his Ministry to carry out 25 major road constructions in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The Minister also disclosed that out of N25billion budgeted for the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in the 2017 budget, only N800 million has so far being released by the Ministry of Finance to the agency, representing 3.2 percent.
Fashola, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) on Thursday, attributed delay in release of the Sukuk proceeds to ‘conditions’ attached to it.
“Funds generated from Sukuk have not been released because of the conditions tied to it. We will try and repair the roads before people start traveling for the festivities in December. We are doing something about that,” he told the committee.
Recall that in early October, the Federal Government released the proceeds of the N100 billion Sukuk bond to 25 key economic road projects of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, had handed over the N100 billion proceeds cheque to Fashola in Abuja.
The federal government had issued the debut Sovereign Sukuk of N100 billion in September 2017. The Sukuk bond has a tenor of seven years.
Fashola also disclosed that the Federal Government has concluded arrangement to reintroduce toll gates in 38 points across the country after completion of the highways.
He said: “We have concluded plans to reintroduce toll gates across the country and we have finalised the design. It will be managed by private sector and it will be located in the old places, 38 point across the country, we are only waiting for the completion of those roads before we introduce the toll gates”.
He also admitted that the worst roads in the country were located in South South and South East geopolitical zones, pointing out that some of the major federal roads in the 11 states were constructed before the 1967-1970 Nigerian Civil War.
In his remarks, Chairman of the committee, Magnus Abe, lamented that lawmakers were usually sidelined by heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government when siting projects.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
