Senate Asks FG to Reintroduce Tolls on Highways

The Senate has appealed to the federal government to reintroduce the toll fare it abolished 11 years ago to the nation’s highways with a view to generating revenues for the maintenance of the roads.

The chamber also said the development would shore up the nation’s revenue in the face of dwindling oil revenue.
The resolution followed the adoption of the report of Ad hoc Committee on Works which investigated the state of the nation’s federal roads in Nigeria as well as the threat of gully erosion in the South-east.

The committee was headed by Senator Barnabas Gemade (Benue North-east).

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had in 2004 ordered the dismantling of toll gates across the country, citing loss of revenue to government and poor maintenance of the roads.

Before the adoption of the report, the Senate had tasked the federal government to make provisions for the repair of major highways in 2016 budget, regretting that the state of roads across the country was deplorable and required urgent intervention.
The Senate also advised President Muhammadu Buhari to introduce iron bridges with the intention to protect roads and save the highways from being overstretched by heavy vehicles/trucks.
The committee recommended rehabilitation and constant maintenance of existing roads’ infrastructure.
The lawmakers also invited the management of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to brief the senate on the state of federal government’s concessioning arrangements and plans to explore Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements in road construction.
Also yesterday, World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Dr. Rachid Benmassoud, told the Senate Committee on Foreign and local debt that the global bank would support governments in Nigeria at all levels to explore other sources of revenues in the face of dwindling oil revenue in the international market.
He also promised to send the debt profile of Nigeria to the committee, disclosing that Nigeria’s debt profile was very low when compared to that of other African countries in view of its Gross Domestic Product.

He pledged World Bank’s preparedness to partner Nigeria in the areas of agriculture and mining in order to generate alternative sources that would not only be needed to service its foreign loans but also fund public infrastructure.

Also yesterday, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the proposal towards the dedication of one per cent of  international airliners passengers’ fares for the funding of tourism sector in Nigeria.

Mohammed made this disclosure while briefing the Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism. He said other countries of the world had begun to implement the charge.

According to him, the money, if dedicated to the tourism sector, would aid capital flights and encourage Nigerians to visit tourism sites in Nigeria instead of travelling abroad.

``Most countries charge airlines operating in the country and bringing people into the country, a percentage of the fare for the tourism development fund,” he said.