2018 Budget: Works to gulp N341bn

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, on Thursday said Works sector would require N341 billion for projects in 2018.
He said this while defending the ministry’s 2018 budget before members of the House of Representatives Committee on Works, in Abuja.
Fashola said that out of N325.9 billion earmarked as capital budget, the main ministry would gulp N288.3 billion while parastatals will need N37.6 billion.
According to Fashola, the budget for Federal Emergency Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) is N25.6 billion, Office of Secretary to Government of the Federation, N10.1 billion and Federal School of Surveying, Oyo, N450 million.
“Others are Council For the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), N548.5million, Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS), N301milliin and Surveyors Registration Council of Nigeria (SURCON), N489.6 million,” Fashola said.
For overhead, he told the committee that the ministry earmarked N480.1 million and N15.2 million for its parastatals.
Fashola, however, said that the ministry would give priorities to projects of critical economic value to the country.
“These are highly trafficked routes used for the distribution of goods and services across the country and major river-crossing bridges,” he added.
Fashola blamed the untimely completion of projects on insufficient funding.
“The major factor militating against the timely completion of projects is insufficient budgetary provision and releases for projects to sustain annual cash-flow requirement levels.
“This underscores the need for diversifying the sources of funding for highway projects,” he said.