The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the sum of N621.2bn for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to handle the reconstruction of 21 federal roads across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, announced this Wednesday, while briefing State House reporters after the federal cabinet meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the conference room of the First Lady’s office, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said it was a strategic intervention under the Federal Government Road Infrastructure and Refreshment Tax Credit Scheme, noting that Executive Order 7 allows the private sector to deploy in advance the taxes they would pay for infrastructure development.
Fashola said nine of the selected projects were in North Central, three in North East, two in North West, two in South East, three in South South, and two in South West.
The approval was given in line with Executive Order No. 007 of 2019 cited as the Companies Income Tax (Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme) Order, 2019 (“EO7 of 2019” or “the Scheme”) signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Dangote Group was the first to take advantage of the EO7 of 2019 to fix the Obajana-Kabba road from its income tax.
The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) had suspended its earlier planned nationwide strike that was to hold on October 11 to give room for negotiations after the NNPC warned that the strike could disrupt fuel supplies.
NUPENG, which called the strike to protest against the poor state of roads in the country, said the situation endangered the lives of drivers.
