By Rose Onda
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday gave the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) the go-ahead to take over the reconstruction of 21 federal roads across the country.
This was disclosed after the weekly virtual meeting of the FEC, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the council meeting, the Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola the selected 21 roads are 1804.6 kilometres.
According to him, this is in line with Executive Order No. 007 of 2019 cited as the Companies Income Tax (Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme) Order, 2019 (“EO7 of 2019” or “the Scheme”), signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Dangote Group was the first to take advantage of the EO7 of 2019 to fix the Obajana-Kabba road from its income tax.
The Nation reports the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) had suspended its earlier planned nationwide strike that was to hold on October 11th to give negotiations a chance, after the NNPC warned that the strike could disrupt fuel supplies.
NUPENG had called the strike to protest against the poor state of roads in the country, saying the situation endangers the lives of drivers.
The Minister said it was a strategic intervention under the Federal Government Road Infrastructure and Refreshment Tax Credit Scheme.
Fashola further explained that under Executive Order 7, it allows the private sector to deploy in advance the taxes they would pay for infrastructure development.
He said nine of the selected projects are in North Central, three in North East, two in North West, two in South East, three in South-South and two in South West.
Details shortly…
Credit: The Nation