The Federal Government has said it will toll all major roads in the country once the work on them is completed.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, made this known on Thursday at an Inter-Ministerial Press Briefing in the Federal Capital Territory.
At the briefing, which was a part of the activities to mark Nigeria’s independence anniversary, Umahi listed the roads to be affected as Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano Expressway, and Makurdi-9th Mile, among others.
He said the tolling of the roads “is going to bring a lot of money to the Federal Government”, adding that the private sector has been engaged “to bring in funds, construct these roads, work with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Works to toll these roads”.
He said the government would start with the Keffi-Makurdi Road that has been completed.
He added that his ministry has been engaging with the Ministry of Finance for a paperless mode of payment.
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Umahi said: “For example, we are completing the Lagos-Ibadan, we are working on Makurdi to 9th Mile in Enugu State, we are working from Abuja to Lagos.
“These roads are going to be tolled.
“But we are not just tolling them, we are bringing confidence in the use of these roads.
“If people can travel at night because we are bringing security, where the response time will be 10 minutes on the entire corridor, where you have solar light permanently there and then reduce travel time, and through the tolling, the roads are maintained, then, there will be confidence because Nigerians will pay, if the roads are good.”
Umahi said the President Bola Tinubu administration inherited 300 damaged roads and bridges, adding that the construction of more of the bad roads would commence from October 1, 2024 across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
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