FG has done very little on infrastructure maintenance – Fashola

Babatunde Fashola, the minister of power, works and Housing, has said that the federal government has not done enough on infrastructure maintenance throughout Nigeria.

Fashola stated this while receiving an award of recognition from the Association of Indigenous Construction Contractors of Nigeria (AICCON) as a result of the regular payment of the federal government’s contractors in the last one and a half years, the Punch reports.

The minister, in a statement issued by his special adviser on communications, Hakeem Bello, told his guests that another area where massive scope existed for partnership was in the maintenance sector, adding that the ministry was already working on setting up an infrastructure maintenance framework.

Fashola remarked: “Whatever we build is built to a design life, subject to certain types of maintenance, and that is an area that we haven’t really done enough.” He said the ministry was endeavouring to establish a pilot maintenance framework, beginning with government’s buildings.

Fashola said: “Hopefully, maybe in the 2019 budget, if we are lucky, we will be able to put a sizeable global maintenance budget for the first time and see how to engage labour and contracting companies to help grow the economy.” The minister appealed to stakeholders to step things up within the framework of the indigenous construction companies, telling the guests to compete so as to improve their capacity.

Lekan Osifeso, the head of AICCON, praised Fashola for the constant payment of contractors, noting that the yearly size of the construction industry in Nigeria was N1tn, while the contribution of the federal ministry of power, works and housing was in excess of N200bn.

Osifeso, however, remarked that unfortunately the greater part of the funds was lost to capital flight as a result of the non-patronage of local contractors over the years.

Osifeso said: “Our mission is in line with Mr. President’s Executive Order that clearly supports the participation of indigenous construction contractors by the government by way of commitment to patronage.”

Meanwhile, it has formerly been reported that Fashola had said that the federal government generated about 64,000 jobs across the nation through the 2016 national housing programme. The minister said the present administration had succeeded in reducing unemployment across the nation by injecting over 2,000 housing units in the country.

Credit: NAIJ.com