Minister Advocates Alternative Funding To Fix Road Infrastructure 

The minister of state for Works and the minister supervising the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Bello Muhammad Goronyo, has advocated alternative sources of funding to fix and maintain all federal roads across the country.

Goronyo stated this yesterday in Lokoja during his familiarization tour of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) Kogi State field office.

The minister of state who stated that the nation cannot maintain its roads with budgetary allocation, noted that the Ministry of Works would look inward with a view to source alternative fund that would enable the government maintain all the road networks across the country.

“No where in this world that budget can be used to maintain roads effectively. Therefore, we are looking for alternative funding so that we can continue to maintain the nation’s critical assets, like roads that are vital to the citizens and the economy of the country.”

While commending President Bola Tinubu for giving priority attention to road projects across the country, the minister stated that the effort would boost the nation’s economy, thereby reducing cases of crimes and insecurity to the barest minimum.

He assured FERMA staff that their welfare would continue to receive the desired attention and urged them to redouble their effort in ensuring that they delivered quality jobs.

“We are rebranding FERMA to meet the challenges of the 21st century and to whom much is given much is expected in return. Therefore, put the national interest over and above any personal interest to fix the country. You should work hard and support the president to deliver on his mandate,” he stated.

In his speech, the managing director/ chief executive officer of FERMA, Engr. Chukwuemeka Agbasi said the visit was to enable the minister of state to inspect and assess the level of work done on the federal roads in Kogi State.

He commended him for the concern, focus and determination shown to the agency, assuring that FERMA would continue to deliver on its mandate of keeping federal roads in good condition.

Earlier, the Federal Roads Maintenance Engineer (FRME) in charge of Kogi State, Muktar Abdulrahim, revealed that the agency oversees the maintenance of 16 federal roads across the state with a combined length of 1,263 kilometres in the state.

He listed the challenges affecting the agency in Kogi State to include, insecurity, insufficient budgetary allocation, price fluctuations, scarcity of construction equipment within the state and the high cost of construction material.