N300bn Needed Annually To Maintain Federal Roads – FERMA

The sum of N300 billion is required annually for the maintenance of federal roads across the country, the managing director of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Emeka Agbasi, has said.

Agbasi who stated this at an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on FERMA in Abuja yesterday, however said the agency never gets that amount as it faces challenges of inadequate funding in executing its mandate.

“Funding is an issue; the current estimate of our funding need is about N300 billion but we have never had that type of money and it is an issue.

“We are looking at other sources of funding in the work that FERMA engages in outside the budgetary provisions that are provided by the government,” he said.

Agbasi told the lawmakers that the agency has liabilities running into over N100 million yet to be paid to contractors from 2015 to 2021.

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In his remarks, the committee’s chairman, Hon Aderemi Oseni, warned that the 10th National Assembly will not accept “business as usual in FERMA”.

He said the state of roads in the country has reached a deplorable state, resulting in untold hardship for Nigerians, hampering economic growth, and tarnishing the nation’s image.

Oseni said, “Our responsibility as the House committee on FERMA is to uphold this principle by working tirelessly to improve the state of our roads, ensuring the safety and convenience of our citizens.

“Let me state unequivocally that the 10th National Assembly will not accept business as usual in FERMA. The days of huge budgetary allocations with little or no impact on road maintenance are over; we are here to ensure that every naira spent by FERMA delivers tangible results for the Nigerian people.

“We will demand performance, value for money, accountability, transparency, and professionalism from FERMA, and this House committee will not hesitate to utilise the full instruments of the law to sanction any misdeeds that come to our attention,” he said.