FERMA says it needs N1trn to maintain 35, 000km roads

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...targets N30bn yearly from 5% road user charge   The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has said it needs over N1 trillion, a quarter of the 2010 budget, to be able to maintain the 35,000 kilometres federal roads in the country in a year.  The agency explained that it costs about N35 billion to maintain one kilometre-road in which case maintaining 35,000 kilometres of road requires multiplying 35,000 by N35 billion.  Abdulkadir Kure, FERMA board chairman who disclosed this at a world press conference in Lagos on Monday, lamented that at the moment, the level of funding for the agency was very low, revealing that the agency had received only N30 billion in the past couple of years.   "A total of N30 billion has been received by the agency in the past couple of years which means that it will take about 35 years to maintain our roads at the present level of funding", he said, stressing that the nation might not come out of its present road problem in 50 years if the present level of funding does not change.  Kure, an engineer and former two-term governor of Niger State, noted that budgetary allocations had been the only source of funding for road construction and maintenance over the years which means that the agency had been totally funded by the government from budgetary sources since inception. The interpretation of this, he posited, was that the agency cannot get all the funds it needs because of competing interests from other agencies. To get more funds, he said, the agency has mapped out plans to shore up its finances which include concessioning of some of the federal roads to private sector operators.  According to him, the agency in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development and Road Sector Development Team (RSDT) has selected four roads for concessioning including the 96km 9th Mile—Otupa—Oturkpo, 418km Mokwa—Tegina—Birinin Gwari—Kaduna Road, 279km Abeokuta—Ibadan—Ife—Ilesha Road and 255km Jos—Bauchi—Gombe Road which, he explained, were chosen for their high volume of traffic.  Kure also mentioned five percent road user charge on the pump price of petrol and diesel as another avenue for getting more funds for the agency.   "It is estimated that the agency stands to generate a total of about N30 billion annually from this charge which represents 40 percent of the total sum envisaged. The remaining 60 percent of the total sum will be shared and utilised by established states road maintenance agencies", he said.  The figure, he said, was obtained from a report by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) which was based on a daily consumption of petrol at 32 million litres and 12 million litres daily consumption of diesel, hoping that when the sum is realised, it would assist the agency in maintaining more roads.  He also announced the plan to return toll collection on federal roads which is also expected to shore up the agency's revenue profile along with international vehicles transit charge from which about N7.765 billion is expected.  On this score, he disclosed that the agency was already collaborating with all the stakeholders towards implementing them, appealing for both understanding and co-operation of all concerned.

FERMA says it needs N1trn to maintain 35, 000km roads

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