TheCable

Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, has said that the Apapa access roads “will last another 30 years” after rehabilitation by the federal government.

Speaking with journalists on Friday, Fashola said work on the roads will commence in a matter of weeks.

He explained that in the last 10 days, his ministry has held two meetings with the companies that offered to work on the roads and what left is left is to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

The minister appealed to residents of Apapa and its environs affected by the deplorable state of the roads to be patient with the federal government.

“We have done the design and all that we needed to do is to commence the execution of the project,” Fashola said.

“I can assure you that it is going to be a concrete road that I believe, will last for another 30 years when completed. A couple of private companies have offered to work with us to fix the roads and I think in a matter of weeks, we should be able to commence work.

“We are very close, we have held two meetings in the last 10 days with the companies and have agreed; what is left now is for us to formally sign the MoU.”

He explained that although it is private money that would be used to fix the roads, there has to be transparency in the procurement process.

“We must follow the approved procurement guidelines because in government if we receive a gift, it must have a value and you must declare that value,” the minister said.

“We needed to get certification of all the prices as well as approval from the federal executive council to commence the project and that is the only delay.”

He added that the estimated cost from contractors for the project is over N100 billion whereas the annual budgetary appropriation approved was about N7 billion.