The Nigerian government Thursday engaged stakeholders from different economic sectors for the implementation of its Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI).
It declared that the HDMI aimed to deploy Nigeria’s multi-dimensional resources of manpower, skills, finance and technology in the national highway governance covering 35,000 kilometres of federal highway.
Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Works and Housing Minister, made the disclosure during a webinar, stating that N160 billion worth of investments would be attracted at the first phase of the initiative.
He noted that the HDMI sought to introduce accountability, order and profitable entrepreneurship to the management, operation and maintenance of federal highways.
“What we have done now is to identify 10 highways representing about 2,225km and 6.4 per cent of our 35,000km federal highway network as a pilot first phase of the HDMI.
“Our research and studies suggest that on this journey, the first phase of 10 routes of 2,225km can elicit an investment of over N160bn.
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“This is approximating to about N16bn per route and (would) unleash opportunities for prosperity,” Fashola said.
Government, according to the minister, is targeting 46,694 direct jobs, covering construction, fabrication, installation, security, waste management among others.
He went further to say that his ministry in collaboration with the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission would soon announce the bidding process for the projects required on the roads.
Fashola promised that the bidding exercise would be conducted with transparency that would enable the most effective bids to compete vigorously in a process that would deliver value to Nigerians.
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