North Central, South-South To Benefit More As NNPC Allocates N621bn Road Project To Geo-political Zones

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has released the spread and the respective costs of the road projects that will be implemented under the Federal Government Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.

The Corporation released the spread in a statement signed by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Garba Deen Muhammad.

The release of the funding allocation followed the recent approval of the Federal Executive Council for the NNPC to construct/rehabilitate 21 Federal roads under the Federal Government Road Infrastructure Development & Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme, pursuant to Presidential Executive Order 007 of 2019.

Under the programme, the NNPC will construct a total of 1,804.6 kilometres of roads at a total cost of N621,237,143,897.35.

A breakdown of the project funding showed that the North-Central geo-political zone got the highest chunk of N244.87bn for the construction of 791.1 kilometres of roads.

The North-Central is made up Benue, Federal Capital Territory, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, and Plateau State.

The statement from the NNPC disclosed that the South-South geo-political zone emerged the second highest beneficiary of the NNPC Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment project with the sum of N172.02bn for a total of 81.9 kilometres of road.

The zone is made up of Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross-River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers state.

The South-West followed with a total allocation of N81.87bn for the construction of 252.7 kilometres of roads.

The region is made up of Ekiti, Lagos, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, and Oyo State.

Similarly, the NNPC allocated the sum of N56.12bn to the North-East for the construction of 273.35 kilometres of roads under the scheme.

The states expected to be covered under this zones are Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe.

For the South-East geo-political zone, the sum of N43.28bn was earmarked for the construction/rehabilitation of 122 kilometres of road.

The zone is made up of five states and they are Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu,and Imo.

Further breakdown of the NNPC schedule showed that the North-West geo-political zone which is made up of Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Jigawa, and Zamfara got the least allocation.

The zone was allocated the sum of N23.05bn for the rehabilitation of 283.5 kilometres of road.

The NNPC in the statement commended the Federal Executive Council for its timely approval for the take-off of the project and the Federal Inland Revenue Service for its support.

The road construction project is a fallout of the NNPC interventions when the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD)Branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) threatened to go on strike over poor state of roads in the country.

The intervention of the NNPC resulted in the suspension of the strike action and ensure a smooth flow of supply of Petroleum products across the country.

THE WHISTLER had reported that following NNPC’s intervention, the Tanker Drivers had agreed to accept the dialogue option proposed by the Corporation.

During the heat of the planned strike by the Tanker Drivers, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, had taken a decisive step towards the actualization of his promise when he hosted a major stakeholders’ meeting at the Corporation’s headquarters in Abuja.

The meeting was attended by the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Federal Ministry of Works, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Department of State Services (DSS), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and Nigeria Union of Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

During the meeting, the stakeholders had agreed on a framework for NNPC’s intervention in critical road rehabilitation through the Federal Government Tax Credit Scheme.

“We are committed to utilising the Federal Government’s Tax Credit Scheme to rebuild some of the affected roads in line with Mr. President’s Executive Order 7.

“Upon our fruitful deliberations today, the NNPC has pledged to support the PTD and NARTO in carrying out quick intervention fixes on some strategic bad spots identified to enable unhindered movement of trucks for transportation of petroleum products nationwide,” Kyari haf said.

Established under the Federal Government’s Executive Order 7 of 2019, the Road Trust Fund Policy/Tax Credit Scheme gives private sector operators an opportunity to fund critical infrastructure with the government.