FG to reintroduce toll gates across Nigeria – Fashola

By Taiye Odewale

Abuja

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, yesterday, disclosed that federal government has concluded arrangement to reintroduce toll gates in 38 points across the country after completion of the highways.
Fashola, who made the disclosure to the Senate Committee on Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) during an interactive session between the committee and his ministry, informed the lawmakers that the toll gates would be managed by private sector and that government would design software to monitor vehicles passing through the roads for the purposes of accountability and transparency on toll collection .
He added that proceeds from the toll gates collection would be used for maintenance of highways just as he explained that payment for such by road users would be made very easy even on mobile phones.
“We have concluded plans to reintroduce toll gates across the country and we have finalised the design.
“It will be managed by private sector and it will be located in the old places, 38 points across the country, we are only waiting for the completion of those roads before we introduce the toll gates.”
The minister also appealed to the committee to revise procurement law in order to fastback contract approval by the government.
Speaking on the budget release to FERMA, Fashola disclosed that, out of the N25 billion budgeted for the agency in the 2017 budget only N800 million has been released so far by the Ministry of Finance.
In his opening remarks, the chairman of the committee, Magnus Abe, expressed dissatisfaction with state of roads across the country, which he said posed danger to motorists and other road users, especially during festive periods.
He, however, assured the minister that the committee would come up with a motion on the release of

Leave a Reply