FG assures Nigerians over re-introduction of toll on highways

Dayo Ayeyemi,Lagos - 11.02.2008

As many Nigerians are expressing fear about the planned reintroduction of toll or road levy on major highways following the purported Federal Government’s roads privatisation policy, the Minister of Transportation, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, has assured that the regime would not become another burden on the people..

The minister disclosed this at the weekend during the stakeholders forum on “Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA)’s Road Concessioning Programme” in Abuja.

She told the audience comprising road users, potential investors, transport workers and owners and policy makers that toll would not be introduced until the roads were rehabilitated and efficient.

The minister said “we will look holistically at what constitutes a cost because tolling will not begin until we have efficient roads.” She stated that the PPP or BOT initiatives on road construction/rehabilitation and maintenance became necessary in order to put major expressways across the country in good condition throughout the year.

Besides, she said the inability of the government to provide the huge amount of money required for road construction was as a result of competition from other sectors and had made the PPP/BOT schemes imperative.

She allayed investors’ fears over the schemes, saying that through legal and institutional frameworks, there would be continuity in the road maintenance concession programme.

Apart from concessioning road maintenance and rehabilitation, the minister assured Nigerians that an efficient rail system would be put in place in the next three years to ease transportation.