The Minister of Power, Works and Housing; Mr. Babatunde Fashola, while defending the ministry’s budget before members of the House of Representatives Committee on Works, in Abuja, said Works sector would require N341 billion for projects in 2018.
He said, out of N325.9 billion earmarked as capital budget, the main ministry would gulp N288.3 billion while parastatals will need N37.6 billion.
Fashola noted that the budget for Federal Emergency Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) is N25.6 billion, Office of Secretary to Government of the Federation; N10.1 billion and Federal School of Surveying, Oyo; N450 million. Others are Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN); N548.5million, Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS); N301 million and Surveyors Registration Council of Nigeria (SURCON); N489.6 million.”
The Minister told the committee that for overhead; the ministry earmarked N480.1 million and N15.2 million for its parastatals.
He also said that the ministry would give priorities to projects of critical economic value to the country. “These are highly trafficked routes used for the distribution of goods and services across the country and major river-crossing bridges.”
Fashola however, blamed the untimely completion of projects on insufficient funding.
“The major factor militating against the timely completion of projects is insufficient budgetary provision and releases for projects to sustain annual cash-flow requirement levels.
“This underscores the need for diversifying the sources of funding for highway projects.” he said.
