The Federal Government must spend about N880bn annually for the maintenance of the federal road network nationwide, the Minister of State for Works, Mohammed Goroyo, declared on Monday.
This came as the Managing Director of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, Chukwuemeka Abbasi, disclosed that the template for deducting the road user charge from the prices of petrol and diesel was never implemented by the defunct Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Authority, now the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
The two government officials spoke in Abuja at an investigative hearing of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee.
The committee is investigating the implementation and remittances of the five per cent user charge for road maintenance under the Federal Road Maintenance Agency.
Speaking at the event, Goroyo said, “FERMA requires an estimated N880bn annually for optimal road conditions. Budgetary allocations have consistently fallen short—N76.3bn in 2023, N103.3bn in 2024, while N168.9bn was budgeted for 2025.
“Though these figures show gradual increases, they remain far below the necessary threshold for sustainable road maintenance. This persistent funding gap has forced FERMA into a reactive mode of maintenance rather than a preventive approach.”
