The nation’s infrastructure stock is set to witness significant boost with Tuesday’s launch of the Highway Development Management Initiative (HDMI), a novel initiative aimed at further attracting private sector funds in roads construction and rehabilitation across the country.

Speaking at the procurement process for the concession of 12 major roads under the scheme, covering all the six geopolitical zones of the country, Acting Director General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC, Mike Ohiani, stated thus:

“The primary objective of the HDMI is to attract private sector technical expertise, managerial capacity and financial resources to improve the quantity and quality of the road assets in Nigeria with a view to propelling rapid economic development and growth through the haulage of passengers and goods’’.

Speaking further, he disclosed that the ICRC, in exercise of its statutory mandate, reviewed and certified the 12 OBCs to enable the project move to private sector procurement stage. In doing that, the Commission provided PPP pre – contract regulatory guidance to the Federal Ministry of Works for the Bid documents.

According to Ohiani, after the evaluation of the Request for Qualification (RfQ), qualified bidders will be issued with the Request for Proposals (RfP) to submit technical and financial proposals for their chosen project lots for evaluation. He sad any firm/consortium that is found to have met the minimum requirements as stipulated in the RfP will enter into project negotiation phase with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to enable the preparation of a Full Business Case (FBC) for the Commission’s review and compliance certification. The FBC Compliance certification is to enable the Honourable Minister present the project to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval.

Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, (SAN), stated at the ceremony in Abuja that the aggregate total of 1,963 kilometres, which is 5.6 per cent of the 35,000-kilometre federal road network, would be affected by the development.

He said the 12 roads were chosen to ensure the coverage of each of the six geo-political zones, adding that the initial capital investments would be about N1.134 trillion.

The roads are Benin-Asaba (125km), Abuja-Lokoja (193km), Kano-Katsina (150km), Onitsha-Owerri-Aba (161km), Shagamu-Benin (258km), Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga (122km), Kano-Shuari (100km), Potiskum-Damaturu (96.24km), Lokoja-Benin (270km), Enugu-Port Harcourt (200km), Ilorin-Jebba (129km), Lagos-Otta-Abeokuta (80km), and Lagos-Badagry-Seme (79km).

According to him, the project could create 50,000 direct and 200,000 indirect jobs.

Manji Yarling

Ag. Head, Media & Publicity