The Federal Executive Council yesterday approved the takeover of the reconstruction of 21 federal roads across the six geopolitical zones of the country by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola who briefed State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said the approval was in line with Executive Order No. 007 of 2019 cited as the Companies Income Tax (Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme) Order, 2019.
The minister said the strategic intervention under the Federal Government Road Infrastructure and Refreshment Tax Credit Scheme in respect of 21 roads covers 1804.6 kilometers, adding that Executive Order 7 allows the private sector to deploy taxes in advance if they would pay for infrastructure development.
According to him, nine of the selected projects are in North Central, three in North East, two in North West, two in South East, three in South-South, and two in South West.
The minister said he presented three memoranda to the Council that were approved, stressing that the first memorandum had to do with a section of Calabar-Ikom-Ogoja road, especially the section to Apet Central.
“Those drains were put there about 42 years ago and 86 of them have failed and we need to replace them now with concrete rain drains to allow water to pass through otherwise the retention of water will badly impact the road.
“As a result of that, we have to revise the scope of works from rehabilitation to construction in order to remove all the old steel drains that are corroded and replace them with concrete drains. “It is over 75 kilometers of road and that will require an augmentation contract of an additional sum of N12 billion. So that memo was approved.
“The second memorandum relates to the road infrastructure tax credit scheme. You recall Executive Order seven signed by Mr. President allowing private sector operators to identify infrastructure such as roads for which you deploy your taxes in advance with tax and pay.
“So you recall that I had briefed you here about the use of that policy like the Dangote Group from Obajana to Kabba, Apapa to Oworoshoki. Earlier this year, there were five other roads, the Kaduna Western bypass, the Lekki Port road, the road from Shagamu through Papalanto and a couple of others and there is one road in Maiduguri.
“So today, we have another player. We have all the interested players who are still showing interest but we haven’t concluded. We have another player who has shown interest and committed to deploy taxes. It’s the government corporation known as NNPC. So NNPC has identified 21 roads that it wants to deploy. So now the instructive thing about this is that this initiative helps the government to achieve many things, including Ministerial Mandates Three and Four, which we discussed at the last retreat if you recall, was energy sufficiency, electric power and petroleum energy distribution across the country.
“Of course petroleum energy distribution is being impacted positively and negatively, as the case may be the transport infrastructure, which is the Ministerial mandate four.
“NNPC has sought and Council has approved that NNPC should deploy tax resources to 21 roads covering the total distance of 1,804.6 kilometers across the Six geopolitical zones.
