Nigeria: House Committee on Works inspects Federal Highway projects in North Central zone

MINA Blog- The House of Representatives Committee on Works has called for quick completion of on going road projects in the North- Central geo-political zone of the country.

Committee members inspected the expansion of the 5.4 kilometers Abuja- Keffi expressway and the dualization of the 220 kilometers Keffi- Akwanga-Lifia- Makurdi Federal roads.

The lawmakers led on the inspection by the Chairman, Honourable Abubakar Kabir Abubakar, noted that the purpose of the on the spot assessment by the was to ascertain the level of job done and the compliance level of the contractor handling the project.

He explained that it was part of their responsibilities to carry out oversight functions on critical infrastructure projects of Federal Government inorder to give value to the money being spent on projects. He said that Federal Government has spent billions on naira on this particular road project.

Speaking on funding of the project, he said it was a joint funding arrangement between Nigeria and China. “The project is being executed by China Harbour Engineering Company limited through a Preferential Buyer’s Credit loan from Export -Import Bank of China (CEXIM) with about Eight-five percent of the contract sum, while Nigeria is providing the other fifteen percent counterpart fund of the contract sum,” he explained.

Taking the team on tour of the project, the Chairman said that the project is very important as it connects three states of Nasarawa, Benue and Enugu.

On the project performance he called on the contractor handling the project to expedite action as the project is of great importance to the nation.

In his response, the Ministry’s Project Implementation Unit: Road Sector Development team led by the Senior Project Manager, Engineer Usoh Henry assured members of the Committee that the project would be delivered on good time.

Speaking further on the project, Engineer Usoh said that the project is about 75% completion and reassure the members of the Committee that the project was going to be delivered by April, 2023.

According to him, the the project was divided into two phases in order to ease its implementation. They are, Phase l; which is the dualization of Keffi- Akwanga- Lafia- Makurdi road and the Phase Il, the dualization of Makurdi-Otukpo- Obollo Afor-Enugu road.

Speaking on quality of job done Engineer Usoh said that the Contractor was closely supervised as it is mandatory for all multi- lateral funded projects like the road project. He said that an independent consultant was on site to carry out unbiased supervision, monitoring and control of the project adding that the China EXIM Bank also engaged supervision consultants to play their roles in accordance with international best practices.

 

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