President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government says it has given account of its stewardship in the area of housing and road construction across the country.
It said it has delivered a total of 8,938 housing units across 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and constructed 9,290km of roads nationwide.
Minister of Works and housing Babatunde Fashola made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja while presenting the scorecard of his stewardship in the regime’s eight-year rule.
The theme of the scorecard was ‘Tour of Duty as HM of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: A Time and Economic Resource Report (2015-2023)’.
Fashola said Buhari’s eight-year tenure targeted improving Nigerians’ living conditions and reducing multidimensional poverty.
He revealed that upon his appointment as minister, his target was to improve human lives by venturing into the construction of long-neglected capital projects inherited from previous administrations.
“When this administration came into being, the budgetary allocation for the whole country was N18 billion, but within the first year of office, the President was able to put this to N224 billion. Today we have 13,000 roads under construction,” Mr Fashola explained. “We have created 383,431 jobs, constructed 9,290.34 kilometres of roads, linear metre of lane marking 2,270,319 and number of road signs installed 254,690.” NAN quoted him as saying.
The works minister added, “What this is doing in effect is that journey times are being reduced, improving human conditions and promoting prosperity. On housing, we have 46 sites in 35 states with 6,068 housing units and 2,870 housing units in the FCT.”
Fashola added that the ministry issued 1,262 building contracts, while 6,685 certificates of occupancy (CofO) were signed from 2015 to March 2023.
According to him, the ministry generated a revenue of N13,09 billion within the period.
Fashola said the second Niger Bridge, which had stayed untouched for about three decades by previous administrations, was one of the mega projects executed by the Buhari administration.
He added that another major project was the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which the government gave priority