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.
