By Hillary Asemota
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, has said federal government is currently executing 895 contracts in 795 projects spanning over 13,000 km of roads and bridges nationwide.
Fashola, who spoke at the National Council of Works and Housing Meeting in Bauchi, acknowledged that government is undertaking maintenance works on 41 bridges that has employed 1,157 people directly and created 3,309 indirect jobs.
We have facility management contracts for 25 federal secretariats across Nigeria after we completed renovation works, said.
According to him, infrastructure also helps to make people efficient, it creates competition and leads to productivity.
On his emphasis on infrastructure, he said: “The reason for this is not far-fetched. The nations that are richer than us have more infrastructure than us and in order to bridge this gap we have to invest; because no nation or community can grow bigger than the stock of infrastructure.
“Across all of these, engineers, geologists, surveyors, lawyers, bankers, suppliers, artisans and laborers are involved in an ecosystem of enterprise from which they earn a daily, weekly or other periodic income.
“In 9 facilities that we assessed the conditions of fittings such as fans, air conditioners, light fittings, toilets and wash hand basin, we found that out of 41,800 installations 12,459 representing 29.8% were not functioning. These are people’s jobs to repair, supply, replace and install as the case may be.
“But that is only part of the story, the employment. The other parts include improved asset value, because everywhere a new road or bridge is built, the land value appreciates by up to 30% creating enormous capital gain.”