FG rolls out highway development management initiative to fix Nigerian roads
By Taofeek Lawal
The Federal Government on Tuesday rolled out the Highway Development Management Initiative (HDMI), as parts of efforts to improve the stock of infrastructure both in qualitative and quantitative terms in many sectors from roads and bridges, to rail, airports and seaports.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola stated this in an address he delivered in Abuja during the formal notification of the commencement of the HDMI procurement process.
According to Fashola, one of the early initiatives of the Buhari administration was to improve the ease of doing business which encompasses infrastructure to be an important driver of the HDMI.
The minister said the HDMI which consists two categories namely; the Value-added Concessions (VAC), and the Unbundled Assets Approvals (UAA), will provide opportunity for small businesses to take advantage of the commercial opportunities that are available along the row for the UAA while for VAC, the road pavement and entire right of way will be concessioned for development and management by the concessionaire.
The VAC, Fashola said will be rolled out in phases, and the First Phase will involve twelve roads. The roads include Benin – Asaba (125km); Abuja – Lokoja (193km); Kano – Katsina (150km); Onitsha – Owerri – Aba (161km); Shagamu – Benin (258km); Abuja – Keffi – Akwanga (122km); and Kano – Maiduguri (Lot 1 Kano-shuari 100km ; Lot 2 Potiskum-damaturu 96.24km). Others are Lokoja Benin (270km); Enugu – Port Harcourt (200km); Ilorin – Jebba (129km); Lagos – Ota – Abeokuta (80km); and the Lagos – Badagry (79km)
He said, “Currently, the government is executing over 700 different contracts which aggregates to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of over 13,000km of roads and bridges across all the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory. As a result of the size of the undertaking, there is an increasing and unsatisfied demand for funding to finance these projects to completion and to maintain them. There is also the need to finance other complementary services like weigh bridges, rest houses, towing vehicles and road furniture which seem better suited for the commercial initiative of the private sector.”
Fashola said that the Federal Government will do all within its power to mobilize private capacity, resources, and entrepreneurship into the Nigerian highway sector and convert roads from just social assets into assets of commercial opportunities and enterprise.
He added that the twelve roads were carefully chosen to ensure that each of the six geo political zones are covered which are aggregate in total to 1963.24 km which is 5.6% of the 35,000 km Federal road network.
“The initial capital investments that we foresee is something in the order of NGN 1,134,690,048,000.76 and the employment potentials are an estimated 50,000+ direct jobs and 200,000+ indirect jobs. The process started on the 17th June 2020 with legislative consultation to get parliamentary support and endorsement which I believe was successful and we are assured that if there is need for legislative support, the response will be reasonably swift,” the minister added.
The Federal Government he said has struck strategic partnerships with some high-profile brands such as KPMG, UK NIAF, Lagos Business School, who have all offered their services in various aspects of the project development.
He also informed that the right of way of the 12 roads have not only been fully gazetted, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), as a regulatory body for concessions of such nature, has already issued the Certificate of Compliance for the Outline Business Case that is necessary to commence the process.
