The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has indicated its readiness to fix 21 roads across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The oil company, on Wednesday, got the approval to deploy some of its tax liabilities on the projects from the Federal Executive Council.
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed to State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that NNPC would commit N621.2 billion to fix 1,804.6 kilometres of road.
Fashola said that the NNPC tax deployment would not be a one-off but periodic payment.
Nine of the roads are in the North-Central with two each in North-West, North-East and South-South. The South-East and South-West have three roads each.
The minister said the identified roads were picked for redevelopment in consideration of their importance.
While explaining the rationale behind picking nine roads in North Central, Fashola said that they are in Niger State, saying, “Niger is major storage centre for NNPC.”
He said that an Executive Order 7, signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, allowed private sector operators to identify infrastructure such as roads for which they would deploy, in advance, the taxes that they should have paid.
“You recall that I had briefed you here about the use of that policy by the Dangote Group on the Obajana to Kabba and Apapa to Oworonshoki.
“Earlier this year, there were five other roads, the Kaduna Western Bye-pass, the Lekki-Port Road, the road from Sagamu through Papalanto and a couple of others like that.
“So, today we have another player. We have other interested players who are showing interest but we haven’t concluded. But, we have another player who has shown interest and committed to deploy taxes and it is the NNPC.
“So, NNPC has identified 21 roads that it wants to deploy some of its tax liabilities to,” he said.
The minister said that the initiative would help the government to achieve many things, including Ministerial Mandate Three and Four, which were discussed at the recent retreat.
According to him, the Ministerial Mandate Three was energy sufficiency in electric power and petroleum energy distribution across the country.
He said, “NNPC has sought and council has approved today that NNPC deploy tax resources to 21 routes covering a total distance of 180.6km across the six geopolitical zones,” he said.
The minister said that NNPC’s gesture would facilitate petroleum distribution across the country as Niger experienced gridlock every year, adding that Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello, had been complaining that his roads were being damaged by trucks.
He said that drivers, after damaging the roads with their overloaded trucks, would turn round to protest against the damage they had caused.
“So, they are nine like that in the North-Central, three in the North-East, two in the North-West, two in the South-East, three routes- the entire Odukpani-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene road in Lot one, two and three now fully covered.
“Then, in the South-West, you have the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, the Agbara Junction, and you also have Ibadan to Ilorin; Oyo-Ogbomoso section.
“In the South-East, you have the Aba-Ikot-Ekpene in Abia and Akwa Ibom, so, that is a major link. Then, you have Umuahia-Ikwuano-Ikot Ekpene road again and so on so forth.
“In the North-West, it is Gadar Zaima-Zuru-Ganji road and also Zaria- Funtua-Gusau to Sokoto road.
“In the North-East, it is the Cham-Numan, Bali-Serti and Gombe-Biu roads. The road impacted in the North-Central, include Ilorin-Jeda-Mokwa-Bokani sections one and two, Suleja-Minna sections one and two.
“Bida-Lambata Agaie-katcha-Baro road and Mokwa-Makera-Tagina-Kaduna boarder in Niger State, Minna-Zungeru-Tegina road, and Bida-Minna road-all in Niger State; as I said, a total of 21 roads,” Fashola said.
The minister said that the move by the NNPC would resolve the financing problems regarding the execution of the road projects.
