The Nigerian government is set to reintroduce toll gates on Nigerian roads as 12 highways have been earmarked for concession to private companies.
This was made known on Friday in Abuja by the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, while receiving the Outline Business Case Certificate of Compliance for 12 pilot federal highways billed for the concession which signifies the return of the toll gates as concessionaires will have to recoup their investments.
The Minister said that the 12 earmarked roads were under the ministry’s Highway Development Management Initiative, adding that the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission would hand over the certificate to the ministry at the FMWH headquarters in the FCT.
The 12 highways in the pilot phase include the Benin-Asaba, Abuja-Lokoja, Kano-Katsina, Onitsha-Owerri, Shagamu-Benin and Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga highways.
Others are the Kano-Shuari, Potiskum-Damaturu, Lokoja-Benin, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Ilorin-Jebba, Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta, and the Lagos-Badagry-Seme Border highways, which have a combined 1,963km stretch.
A document on the objectives of the HDMI presented by Fashola indicates that the initiative would attract sustainable investment and funding in the development of road infrastructure in the country.
The document also stated that the HDMI would maximise the use of assets along the right-of-way and develop other highway furniture.
According to the ministry, the targets are to develop an ecosystem along the federal highway network by bringing multi-dimensional resources of skills, finance, technology and efficiency into national highway governance.
