Dave Umahi, the Minister of Works, stated that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is prepared to finance the construction of high-quality roads in Nigeria.
The minister provided this assurance while inspecting ongoing federal road projects in Lagos, Ogun, and Oyo states.
The minister, who preferred concrete pavement to asphalt, told some of the contractors on sites that the time has come for them to consider using concrete technology for roads in Nigeria.
Talking to some of the contractors, the minister said, “There is a need to use concrete technology. It’s going to make our roads last for a minimum of 50 years.”
“I’m going to be running figures with them (cement manufacturers) to check the cost of cement if we import it and the cost they are giving us here.
“A lot of contractors have complained that it is cheaper to import, but we are not allowed to import cement because we have to help the cement industries, but they also have to be reasonable with us if we are going to be patronising them.
“We are looking at all these things. How do we cut down costs? Because the primary issue is also the cost of construction. We are looking at the figures, but it looks like a lot of contractors are not willing, but I will make them to make the change – we are all engineers.”
The minister also said the Federal Government is ready to prioritise the maintenance of all federal roads nationwide.
