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Stakeholders
laud FG on road concessioning plan
By Moses Akaigwe
Friday, May 02, 2008
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| Photo:
Sun News Publishing |
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Months after the first ever national forum on the concept
of road maintenance through concessioning ended at the Transcorp
Hilton, Abuja, the effusive endorsement of the innovation
and pledges of support to the Federal Ministry of Transportation
and FERMA (Federal Roads Maintenance Agency) by participating
stakeholders have continued to linger.
But for what the Lagos State Government is doing on the Lekki/Victoria
Island axis, in partnership with LCC (Lekki Concession Company),
road concessioning is an unexplored, but result-yielding way
of delivering road construction and maintenance projects.
This was one of the facts that came to the fore at the Abuja
forum, which was also one of the reasons the concessioning
option was widely applauded with a lot of suggestions on how
it could succeed.
Echoing his input at the forum while speaking exclusively
to the Daily sun recently, the Managing Director of ABC Transport,
MR Frank Nneji, commended FERMA for embracing the option.
He said it was a laudable idea that should be commended.
Also speaking with Daily Sun in his office in Abuja, a chieftain
of NARTO (National Association of Road Transport Owners),
Alhaji Lawal Isa, reiterated his association’s support
for the project and readiness so pay the tolls that would
be charged for using the roads constructed or maintained by
the concessionaires.
Another participant, Samson Onusogu, who disclosed that he
is a director in a company that submitted to FERMA, said concessioning
would lead to a network of motorable roads across the country.
“It is going to be like a revolution. But a lot will
depend on the panties, especially FERMA and the Transportation
Ministry being honest and steadfast”, he told Daily
Sun last week.
Road concessioning differs significantly from the traditional
means of implementing road management which involves designing
the proposed works and inviting bids from bidders on the basis
of the design when it fully takes off, it will prompt a shift
from the present arrangement (whereby government totally funds
road projects), to partnership with the private sector under
the public private partnership (PPP) scheme.
At the stakeholders forum in Abuja, which had the : State
of the Nigerian Roads And FERMA’s Maintenance Strategy
Through Concessioning, the Minister of Transport, Mrs. Diezani
Alison-Madueke, had explained that road construction, rehabilitation
and maintenance were too capital-intense for only the government
considering competing demands for fund from other sectors
of the economy.
While acknowledging that roads which account for 90 percent
of the Nigeria’s transportation is vital for the achievement
of President Yar’Adua’s vision of making the country
one of the top 20 economies by year 2020, she remarked: “The
FERMA road concessioning is, therefore, the beginning of an
expected sustained synergy between the public and private
sector in providing good roads for our people in the years
to come. In this regard, the Federal Ministry of Transportation
is also preparing some roads that cut across the country for
rehabilitation and modernization under the Design, Build,
Operate and Transfer (DBOT) scheme”.
She urged the investing public to take advantage of the opportunities
offered by the new approach to road development in the country,
because the desired goal would not have been achieved if after
establishing the legal and regulatory framework for PPP the
private sector fails to play its part.
According to her, the Infrastructure Concessioning Regulatory
Commission (Establishment, etc) Act, 2005 which was passed
into law by the National Assembly provides for the participation
of the private sector in financing, construction, development,
operation or maintenance of infrastructure or development
projects of the Federal Government through concessioning or
contractual arrangements.
The Act which would soon be in operation takes care of needs
such as: Assurance that the government gets value for money
from private participants; appropriate allocation of risks
between public and private parties; and establishment of the
necessary legal, regulatory and institutional framework for
PPP.
In his comments, the Managing Director of FERMA, Engineer
Olubunmi Peters, assured that agency was committed to maintaining,
rather than repairing roads, adding “the concept of
road strengthening is what brought us here”. He disclosed
that interests were being expressed by potential partners
for whom the deadline was extended to accommodate as many
as possible.
Other presentations at the forum included Best Practices in
Concessioning Programme; Options And Structure for Financing
Road Maintenance Concessions, by the Managing Director of
Urban Development Bank of Nigeria Plc; and Legal And Regulatory
Framework on Road Concessioning by Mrs. Stella Anukam, Board
Secretary/Legal Adviser, FERMA, among others.
The interactive sessions were as interesting as the papers
presented, and though questions were raised on certain grey
areas and suggestions proffered by the participants, one thing
was undeniably clear - the “vote” for road concessioning
was overwhelming. Nneji, for instance, tasked government to
avoid the pitfall of policy changes which is capable of derailing
the new concept.
In a chat with Daily Sun a few days ago, the ABC Transport
boss, remarked: “Concessioning is a way out of the bad
state of the roads because when you give concessions to people
and they maintain the roads and collect tolls, that is one
way of solving the problem. It is good, but we expect that
before we start talking about concession, government should
pay attention to the rehabilitation of the roads, pump in
money, restore the roads, rehabilitate them, then you can
concession them out for maintenance.
“And then people can build new roads, shorter roads,
and collect tolls on them. So, we support concession, we support
billing of the roads, but before that talk matures, government
should fix the roads”.
Also in an exclusive chat in his office. Isa (who is the National
Operations Coordinator of NARTO) advised the Transportation
Ministry and FERMA to resolve the crisis of confidence that
would arise over the management of the toll points, after
the construction or maintenance of roads, especially collection
of money from motorists. He, however, gave one condition on
which NARTO members would pay toll: That government rectifies
the differential between the prices of petrol and diesel.
All over the world, he argued, diesel costs less than petrol
except in Nigeria where the opposite is the case (the difference
in pump prices is officially N20).” We agree to pay
toll in support of concessioning because we are patriotic
citizens. But our message to the Transportation Minister is:
Please, tell the President to adjust the prices of petrol
and diesel should be N30 to N30” (diesel to be cheaper
than petrol by between N30 and N50).
Perhaps, for now, the most cheery assurances from the side
of government was the remarks by the Minister of Transportation
that the problem of policy change was being addressed by the
relevant committee made up of legal minds, because “confidence
is necessary for investors to come” at commencement
of tolling.
She went further: “Tolling cannot be done and will not
be done until we have the kind of quality roads we expect,
not before”. Though this was subjected to conflicting
interpretations by aides after the minister had left the venue,
the message was clear to the participants.
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