Against the backdrop of deteriorating Federal roads nationwide, the Federal Government may have decided to reintroduce tolling on its highways, to raise money to fix the roads.
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A policy document on the reintroduction of tolling may be forwarded to the Federal Executive Council by Works Minister, Mike Onolememen, for approval and implementation.
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The policy document is known as Green Paper: Federal Roads and Bridges Tolling Policy for Nigeria.'
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The Director, Public, Private Partnership, Federal Ministry of Works, Babatunde Ekusinmi, who disclosed this to newsmen noted that "Nigeria had operated some toll roads for several years, but they were abandoned in 2004, due mainly to legal disputes, revenue leakages and unmet maintenance of the tolled roads. With tolling once again being considered as a policy option, Nigeria has the advantage that it can assess successfully and execute tolling to develop, build, manage and maintain roads".
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The Green Paper proposal claimed that tolling policy would foster the improvement of Nigerian roads and bridges. "Tolling would generate the revenue needed to recover cost to the private investor of the construction, rehabilitation, financing, maintenance and operation of the road and bridge, and to achieve reasonable returns for that investor; the Federal Government would enter into toll concessions only where such concessions are financially viable and forecast traffic volume is high (unless there are strong economic or social grounds).