Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has said the federal government is owing highway contractors a total of N10.4 trillion.
Fashola stated this, on Tuesday, when he appeared before the House of Representatives, Committee on Works, to defend the ministry’s 2023 budget estimates.
The minister, who said said shortage of young engineers and technical officers was affecting the ministry, stated that the major challenge to highway development in the country was inadequate funding.
According to him,“The main challenge to highways development in the country remains Inadequate funding. As at date, the government is committed to highway contractors to the tune of about N10.4trillion while a total of about N765billion are unpaid certificates for executed works.
“As at October 2022, the ministry had a cumulative unpaid certificate in the sum of N765,017,139,752.92 for ongoing highway and bridge projects. Apart from the pressure of resources to pay, there is the inadequacy of annual budget provisions where N100m or N200m was provided for roads costing twenty or more billion.
“In spite of all odds, twenty (20) major highways projects have so far been completed in 2022 and are ready for commissioning. The total cost of the completed projects is in the sum of N444,322,123,808.61 and they cover a total length of 379.677km.
Additionally, there are fifty-nine(59) major highways/bridges priority projects that are at an advanced level, to be completed within 2022-2023 with a total contract sum of N60,961,187,130.71”.