Edo owes road contractors over N28 billion

EDO State Government is currently owing contractors handling different road projects across the State a whopping N28,197,752,833,50 billion, the commissioner for Infrastructure, Mr Osahon Abraham Amiolemen has disclosed.

Amiolemen who spoke yesterday in Benin during the ongoing ministerial briefing at the State House of Assembly said that between January and September 2018, the state government awarded N52,814,329,790,39 billion road contracts out of which a total of N31,340,800,056,56 billion have also been paid to contractors.

According to him, the sum of N13,963,738,463,56 billion was allocated to the ministry in the 2018 budget, the sum of N11,905,679,257,66 billion has been accessed leaving a balance of N2,058,059,206,90 billion.

He also added that over 200 Kilometres of roads have been awarded by the state government in the period under review across the three senatorial districts, 65 Kilometres of the roads were either rehabilitated, constructed, completed and commissioned while another 152.253 Kilometres are ongoing and at various stages of completion.

He further disclosed that 67 roads have been designed and awaiting procurement processes while a total of four roads have also been installed with street lights as part of government’s plans to illuminate some of the major roads a night.

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He added that the sum of N94,919 million was generated internally by the ministry against N80 million target.

He said the state government was designing a 10-year master plan on the road sector with a view to prioritizing roads construction in the State.

He, however, attributed paucity of funds, heavy downpour to the slow pace of roads constructed in the State.

“The roads in Edo State are thousands of Kilometres and if we want to address all the roads at once we will be counting hundreds of billions of Naira which the House know that the state government will not be able to get in a particular year.

Amiolemen noted that for fiscal 2018, a total sum of N13 billion was budgeted by the government for road projects, for a total sum of over N40 billion between last year and this year.