The Minister of State, Works, Mohammad Bello Goronyo, has decried the poor budgetary allocation and released it to the Federal Emergency Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA.
He described amounts allocated for road maintenance as grossly inadequate considering the enormous responsibility which the maintainance of Nigeria’s road infrastructure cutting across the 36 states of the federation including Abuja represents.
Goronyo said this while defending the FERMA’s 2025 budget before the Senate Committee on FERMA, in Abuja.
He explains that N96. 7 billion was allocated to the road maintaince agency in the 2024 Appropriation Act of 2024 and amount which was later increased to N103.3 billion following President Bola Tinubu’s intervention.
Goronyo however expressed sadness that of this sum, only N41. 282 billion was released from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation to the Agency out of which the sum of N40.287 has been fully expended on its operations during the year under review.
While appealing to the Senate committee for a favourable consideration of the N64.88bn proposed in the 2025 budget, the minister explained that it would go a long way in the maintenance of major public roads a number of which are in a deplorable state.
For the 2025 fiscal year, FERMA proposed a budget of N64. 88 billion, comprising N4.9 billion for personnel costs, N33. 468 billion for overhead costs, and N26. 487 billion for capital costs.
He said, “This budget prioritizes major trunk A roads within the six geopolitical zones, aligning with Mr. President’s development and economic recovery objectives of the Renewed Hope Agenda.”
Goronyo recalled that during an oversight visit of the Senate Committee on FERMA in March last year, members agreed that what agency was grossly under funded.
According to him, an assessment carried out by a team of experts indicated that it would require over N700 billion to carry out the task of maintaining Federal Roads nationwide.
In his opening remarks earlier, the Chairman Senate Committee on FERMA, Senator Babangida Husaini said the Committee was “taken aback” when it saw what was allocated for FERMA’s operations.
He wondered why so much attention was being paid to the construction of new roads at the expense of the maintenance of existing ones which are critical for the nation’s development.
