Osinbajo-led FEC approves N126bn road contracts in 8 states

N126 billion contracts for 12 roads across eight states of the federation, was on Wednesday approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola, while unveiling this at the end of the seven- hour FEC meeting, disclosed that the twelve roads are in the states of Kano, Bauchi, Adamawa, Borno, Kwara, Gombe, Enugu, and Kaduna.

“Council considered and approved the award of contracts for 12 roads, one of them is the Dukka Gulu road, in Kano, others are spread across Bauchi, Adamawa, Kwara, Gombe/Adamawa, Kano, Enugu, Kaduna, Bauchi/Gombe.

“The headline figures are in the region of N126 billion but I think that is not the story, the story really is what the award of those contracts will do to the economy.

“It will restore confidence to the construction industry. Contractors who have been owed for two, three years before Mr President was elected are back in various states, they recalled their workers and as they are purchasing gravel, cement, the economy is on its way back with a bend and this situates what the Minister of budget and planning has said.

“Every place in all of those states once we mobilise the contractors, the money is kept in those states. Most of the workers who drive the trucks, who fix the roads that you see are indigenes of those states and so they aggregate to the total output from each of those states to the national productivity and national recovery.

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“What you then will see is improved journey time which was what we promised you as we cover more grounds wherever we have worked we have seen that you are travelling more efficiently, you are burning less fuel, you are reaching your destination quicker and as we complete those roads we can only have a more efficient economy,” he said.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning Udoma Udo Udoma, who was with Fashola at the unveiling, added that the council held extensive discussion on the Economic Recovery Growth Plan.

“The growth plan is still being fine-tuned. But a lot of inputs were made by council members and it is virtually ready for the president to launch. However, we are doing some fine- tuning and during this period, we also do some final consultation before the president launches the plan.

“The plan that is being approved is expected to drive Economic recovery and lay the foundation for longer term growth as well as improve the competitiveness of the Nigerian economy. The goal of the plan is to have an economy with low inflation, stable exchange rate and a diversified inclusive and sustaining growth, Udoma said.

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