Emmanuel Addeh
The Minister of State, Works and Housing, Mr. Abubakar Aliyu, has said that investment in infrastructure such as roads and housing would bring prosperity to Nigerians.
According to the minister, when summed up, all the ongoing works on Nigerian roads started by previous administrations, showed that President Muhammadu Buhari is keen on bridging the infrastructure gap of the nation, especially by completing abandoned projects instead of starting new ones.
He said: “This government is investing massively in infrastructure development of our roads and housing sector either by direct budgetary funding or through other means, be it SUKUK, Tax Credit Initiative or the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund.”
The minister, who spoke during a roads inspection tour, commended the contractors handling the projects for the quality of job and urged them to increase the pace of work so that the project could be delivered on time for the benefit of communities along the corridor of the project and other road users.
The minister reiterated the president’s commitment to lifting Nigerians from poverty through investment in infrastructure like roads.
He said: “As you can see, a lot of activities are going on along the corridor of the road project. Because of the construction work people are now building houses along the road corridor and cost of land and rent have gone up. That is to tell you that prosperity is coming your way.”
The minister while inspecting the ongoing work on the Kano Western Bypass road, noted that Buhari would lift more Nigerians out of poverty to prosperity.
The 26.6 km dual carriageway is an extension of Kano -Maiduguri dual carriageway and forms part of the Trans Saharan route and was awarded on the 25th of April, 2007 with an initial contract period of 36 months with completion date being 2010.
Also inspected was the dualization of Kano -Katsina Road Phase I which stretched from Kano town at Dawanau roundabout to Katsina State boarder.
The 74.10km dual carriage way was awarded in 2013 with an initial completion date of June, 2016 but later extended to June 2021.
In his comments, the Controller of Works, Kano State, Mr Yahaya Ali, noted that the contractor remains on site and had made considerable progress in the project.
“Notably, the 72.88km and 68.50 km pavement structure of the new road had been completed up to binder and wearing stages respectively,” he said.
He attributed the progress made to the SUKUK intervention and the competence of the contractor and appealed that the SUKUK funding should be sustained.
