Highway development initiative to create 250,000 jobs — Fashola

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said that the Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI) will create at least 250,000 direct and indirect jobs

Fashola disclosed this at a just-ended national conference on transportation infrastructure development financing in Nigeria held in Abuja.

• Kaduna-based veteran journalist, Tankon Sa’i, dies
• PODCAST: Can Boko Haram take over Nigeria like Taliban did in Afghanistan?

The conference, organised by the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology, Zaria, had the theme: “Sustainable Funding for Transport Infrastructure Development in Nigeria.”

The Minister said road transportation accounts for 95% of all freight and passenger movement in Nigeria, making it a strategic economic tool for Nigeria’s economic growth and prosperity.

He said that the HDMI “is expected to, among other things, utilize private sector funds to bring about order, accountability and attract sustainable investment and funding in the development of road infrastructure and maximize the use of assets along the Federal Highways Right of Way (RoW)”.

Under the government’s Value Added Concession (VAC), he added, 75 investors submitted bids for the Request for Qualification, out of which 18 of the firms have been shortlisted for the next stage of the procurement process Request for Proposal (RFP).

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, told the conference that infrastructure investment required continuous maintenance and replenishment of the infrastructure stock of any country.