Minister of Works David Umahi said on Tuesday that President Bola Tinubu’s administration inherited 2,600 road projects nationwide worth N15 trillion from the previous administration.

Mr Umahi made this known in Abuja at a meeting with contractors to address “some salient issues on the state of road contracts and funding.”

“When we came on board, Mr President inherited a total of 2,600 projects totalling over N15 trillion.

“At that time, the projects were ongoing; only about N2 trillion or thereabout were certified and paid. Now, we have ongoing projects of over N13 trillion,” said Mr Umahi.

He added, “Some of them are under SUKUK, some budgetary provisions over a number of years, some being funded by NNPC tax credit while some with private sector tax credit, among others.”

The minister lamented the rising inflation occasioned by the fuel subsidy removal and the naira challenges.

“Unfortunately, we were confronted with inflation after the fuel subsidy was removed, and then the challenges of the naira came,” said Mr Umahi. “All of these made it mandatory that all projects be looked into.”

Mr Umahi said some of the projects had lasted for 11 months and some over 18 months and above, which made inflation affect their delivery.

He noted that after a realistic look into the projects, the ministry realised the need to review most of them because of the conditions on ground.

The minister disclosed that the ministry had appealed to the president to capture the projects in the 2024 budgetary provision, and he obliged the request.

However, Mr Umahi observed that the ongoing projects had very poor budgetary allocations, ranging from  N50 million to N100 million.

“We also have some new projects; the constituency projects of members of the National Assembly constitute over 90 per cent of the new projects.

“These constituency projects are also of very poor budgetary allocation of about N100 million to  N200 million,’’ he stated.

Mr Umahi further disclosed that the ministry had about 30 projects in its  2024 budget, with N2 billion allocation.

He reiterated the ministry’s commitment to innovating ways to deliver on its mandates.

“Despite the challenges, we have achieved a lot in this ministry. We have 330 projects Mr President approved on an emergency basis, totalling over N260 billion in cost.

“As of today, we have completed over 80 per cent of such projects,” he said.

Mr Umahi directed the permanent secretary to instruct all regional directors of the ministry to carry out the inauguration of the projects nationwide so that Nigerians would see what they were doing.

The minister also disclosed that from July, the ministry would invite the president monthly to commission mega projects across the six geopolitical zones.

(NAN)