Reps seek alternative funding for road reconstruction

• Published date: 18 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

The House of Representatives has urged the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Inland Revenue Service and other relevant stakeholders to explore Executive Order 007 of 2019 (Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme) to provide an alternative funding source to finance the reconstruction of Bida-Lemu-Wushishi-Zungeru Road in Niger State.

It mandated the Committees on Works, Finance, and Legislative Compliance to ensure compliance.

These resolutions followed the adoption of a motion in the need to provide an Alternative Funding Source for the Reconstruction of Bida-Zungeru Road in Niger State sponsored by Saidu Musa Abdullahi.

The House noted that the 92Km Bida-Zungeru 'Truck A' Road is a link between North and South-Western Nigeria, which was first constructed by Costain West Africa in 1962 in the first republic and reconstructed by the Administration of former President Ibrahim Babangida in 1989.

It also noted that aside from the recent maintenance on failed portions of the road through the COVID-19 Intervention by the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), no rehabilitation has been carried out on the road and its bridges (one-lane Bridge) for over 30 years.

The House said it was aware that Zungeru town is host to the ongoing $1.3 billion, 700 megawatts Hydro Electric Power Station project embarked on by the Federal Government of Nigeria, which forms part...