By Isaac Anumihe
As part of efforts to free up the gridlocks along Apapa Expressway, the Federal Government on Wednesday said that the trailer park which will take about 340,000 trailers is 96 per cent completed.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola who disclosed this during a workshop organized by Women International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) in Lagos, to drum home the need to fix the Apapa Road, said the Federal Government has entered into discussions with a group of companies who have agreed to spend N180 billion to fix the road whose 34 kilometres road comprising Marine Beach, Mile 2, Oworonshoki and Oshodi.
The Minister who spoke through his Special Adviser, Technical, Dr Kabiru Hamzat, noted that the government went into partnership with the companies because the Federal Government cannot fix Nigerian roads with government balancesheet.
According to him, in 2015, the total budget for the Ministry of Works is N20 billion but what was released was N12.589 billion.
However, he said, the road sector alone is vital to the social-economic development of the country, but regretted that the bulk of the inland freights coming from the ports are carried by road networks—-not rail as it is in other countries.
“In fact, the roads across the country is 212,000 kilometres and 18 per cent belongs to the Federal Government, 16 per cent belongs to the state governments and six per cent belongs to the local governments” he said.
On the Apapa-Wharf Road, he said: “The rehabilitation of the access road to Apapa Tin Can is ongoing. The rehabilitation of Apapa Wharf road is currently ongoing. That is done in conjunction with Nigerian Ports Authority, Dangote and Flour Mills. We are now having collaboration with Flour Mills and Dangote.
Another one is the dualisation of access road to Onne Port which is in Rivers State. When this government came in there were 206 awarded contracts worth N1.6 trillion. As I told you the budget for 2016 was about 240 billion. So, even if you want to pay all these you can’t. You cannot fix Nigerian roads with government balancesheet. So, it must be Public Private Partnership (PPP) or you must raise bonds etc. For example we just raised sukuk 4 which is N100 billion. It has never happened in the history of the country where the government put in a N100 billion on roads. The reality is we must have innovations in the way we fund our roads.
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