Babatunde Fashola
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said that the ongoing infrastructural projects all over the country have justified foreign debts incurred by the present administration.
He said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration met N18bn in 2015 appropriated for works, noting that they had to borrow to execute projects.
Fashola spoke on Thursday at the opening of the 28th National Council of Works meeting holding in Kano.
He said, “Our first budget was over N250bn, up from the N18bn we met in 2015. That was an increase of over 1,000 per cent. Even though the price of crude oil was dropping, we did not raise taxes.
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“So, some of these monies had to be borrowed. So, when you hear those conversations about public debts, this is where the money went. Just remember that.”
Fashola said the federal government had been able to deliver more than 1,800km of roads across the six geopolitical zones and was determined to complete all the ongoing projects before the expiration of their tenure in May, next year.
The minister also said the best way to legitimately distribute money to the economy was through infrastructure, adding that the projects had revived over 320,000 jobs.
At the event, Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, lamented that Nigeria could have benefited positively from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war if previous administrations had provided the needed infrastructure to transport Nigeria’s gas to other countries, especially through the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline and the Kano-Katsina-Maradi rail line.
Daily Trust
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