Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN has stated that private sector engagement in the development and management of roads is an avenue to mitigate paucity of funds which has hindered road development in the past. Fashola stated this in his presentation on Public Private Partnership (PPP) on Highway Development and Management Initiative to the joint National Assembly Committee on Works, Wednesday June 17th, 2020.
He explained that Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI) was created by his Ministry to manage and develop Federal road networks, with the objective to attract sustainable investment and funding in the development of road infrastructure and to maximize the use of assets along the right of way. The rationale behind the private sector engagement under the HDMI would provide an avenue that could mitigate paucity of funds, which had hindered roads development in the past” he said.
Ten (10) roads are to be concessioned under the first phase of the HDM initiative, namely: Benin – Asaba, Abuja – Lokoja, Kaduna – Kano, Onitsha – Owerri – Aba, Shagamu -Benin, Abuja -Keffi – Akwanga, Kano – Maiduguri, Lokoja – Benin, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Ilorin-Jebba. The total length of the federal road network is 35,000km, but the proposed project in the first phase will cover a total length of 2.275km. The project will attract a capital investment of N163.323bn at a cost of about N16bn per each of the 10 roads, in addition to about 23,322 jobs that would be created.
