The Senate Committee Chairman on Federal Emergency Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Senator Gershom Bassey says the country needs 400 billion nairas annually to maintain Federal Roads.
Senator Bassey made this known in a statement made available in Calabar.
He maintained that the inadequate funding of FERMA contributes to 5he poor state of federal roads across the country.
“We are overnighting FERMA and to maintain our roads in Nigeria, FERMA had told us that it needs at least N400 billion every year just to keep the roads in a good state”, he said.
Senator Bassey added that the N82 billion naira project proposal was presented to the Senate committee.
He deplored the state of federal roads in the country and the poor funding saying from all indications one can see that FERMA has inadequate funding and there is a need for government to find ways to fund FERMA.
Senator Bassey who is a gubernatorial hopeful in Cross River State said to address the road challenge in the country some pieces of legislation have been approved by the national assembly and are awaiting assent by the president.
“We have two or three pieces of legislation that have gone through the Senate and National Assembly and are awaiting approval by the President and chief amongst those is the Federal Road Authority Bill.
“This bill transforms how we maintain and sustain roads in our country.
“If His Excellency, the President, can assent to that bill, it will go a long way in solving a lot of the road problems we are having in this country”, Senator Bassey said.
