FERMA – N300 billion needed yearly for highway repairs

The Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, has said that at least N300 billion is needed yearly for highway repairs.

The agency said it planned to explore other funding sources outside budgetary allocation.

Managing Director, Emeka Agbasi, spoke during an interactive session with the House Committee on FERMA.

He said the appropriations to the agency were inadequate.

According to him, the 2023 allocation was far less than the required target, with less than 50 per cent of the total budget released so far.

Agbasi, in a document submitted to the Committee, stated that aside from the 90 projects awarded by the agency in 2023, no fewer than 200 others were being processed.

The agency executed 85 road projects valued at N132,288,002,695.20, as well as 79 projects valued at N17,144,883,320.78, while 53 projects executed through direct labour gulped N3,218,445,391.07.

Agbasi said FERMA was exploring support from the Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (NIAF), Japanese Grant Aid, as well as multilateral support from the UK Export Finance Credit Facility (UKEF).

He said it was also targeting special intervention funds through the Natural Resources Fund, Ecological Fund, and confiscated funds by anti-graft agencies.