The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, on Thursday, inspected some of the 21 critical federal roads of over 1,804.6km it is funded by a N621.24 billion tax credit scheme.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, while inspecting the reconstruction of the Bida-Lambata section of the Suleja-Mokwa highway in Niger State, along with the chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami, also pledged N1 trillion more investments in road infrastructure.
“This is one of the many roads we are doing and we are very satisfied with what we have seen so far. We’re not stopping at this. We’re also going to head on to phase two, which will also enable further over a trillion naira of investment by NNPC in road infrastructure,” he said.
The NNPC boss lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for issuing Executive Order No. 7 which allows firms to convert their taxes to fund public projects through the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme (RITC) for 10 years.
Last year, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) section, protested the state of roads, stalling fuel distribution.
NNPC then liaised with FIRS and the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to convert N621bn tax to fund the reconstruction of 21 roads. The union also protested this year over delays in the projects.
Speaking, the chairman of FIRS, Nami, said: “We want to appreciate the NNPC for choosing this; we want to appreciate MTN and other taxpayers that are fixing other roads also. We want to encourage other taxpayers to key into this scheme.”
The general secretary, NUPENG, Olawale Afolabi, said: “We are proud of what we are doing and we are proud of what they are doing. It is only our prayer that there will be consistency in what they (NNPC) have promised to do.”
The Etsu Nupe and head of traditional rulers in Niger, Yahaya Abubakar, urged the authorities to deliver the Bida-Lambata project by March 2023 or before the administration ends.
The NNPC team was also in Lagos to inspect the Lagos-Badagry expressway project.
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