2018 budget: Lagos-Ibadan, Enugu- P/H, Abuja- Lokoja, Kano-Maiduguri roads get priority

Should President Muhammadu Buhari succeed in convincing members of the National Assembly to pass his 2018 budget proposal as presented, major regional roads like Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Enugu-Port-Harcourt Road, Second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Lokoja Expressway, Abuja-Kano Expressway and Kano-Maiduguri Road will all become pleasurable to travel on when the lifespan of the budget ends.

These are some of the sub-heads with major chunks of the budget proposal of the headquarters of Ministry of Power, Works and Housing totalling N445,982,295,237 out of N590,087,014,099 proposed for the ministry and all its parastatals.

A further perusal of the document revealed that sub-heads like training, conferences, meetings, workshops and others in that category were collectively allocated N3,351,202,253, while N1,610,249,354 is being voted for monitoring, evaluation, surveillance and verification of projects across the country.

In addition, the ministry intends to spend N1,610,249,354 on issues such as monitoring, evaluation, Surveillance and verification.

Lagos- Ibadan dual carriageway will gulp N20,500,000,000; construction of 2nd Niger Bridge including access roads Phases 2A and 2B in Anambra and Delta states and other projects in the south-east N10,000,000,000; Abuja-Lokoja Expressway- N7,661,748,353; and rehabilitation of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria -Kano Dual Carriageway in Kaduna and Kano states N13,000,000,000.

Also, reconstruction of Kano-Maiduguri Road will cost N12,000,000,000; rehabilitation of Enugu-Port Harcourt Road N9,000,000,000; dualisation of Obajana Junction to Benin- N10,507,000,000; while rehabilitation of Onitsha- Enugu dual carriageway will cost N6,000,000,000.

During the year, the ministry will spend N150,000,000 for payment of an annual subscription to international organisations including the International Road Federation (IRF), Trans-Saharan Road Liaison Committee (TRLC) and N3,000,000,000 on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 1).