ALLNEWS EXCLUSIVE: Why Nigerians Should Expect Toll Gates By 2022

Under the new Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI) of the Federal Government, private individuals will be licensed to build, operate or maintain assets on some federal highways that are up for concession.

During one of his interactive sessions with a Senate Committee, The Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola in November 2017 said that “Tolls will Come.” He explained that the shortfalls of the past toll regimes had been reviewed and that the government was set to return standardized tolls across the country.

“We have looked at the previous tolling regime, the inefficiencies raised we have tried to review. One of the things we have done is to try and standardize the toll designs for the entire country. We have finished with that. So that we’ll expand its width according to the size of the road but they will be built with the same kind of materials that we can control,” Fashola explained.

It is projected that many of the federal roads under construction or rehabilitation would be completed by 2022. This projection follows the disclosure by Fashola, recently on 'The Discourse', a Classic FM programme titled “Housing and Roads Rehabilitation that Nigerians should expect the completion of the second Niger bridge by 2022.

READ ALSO: We Are Funding 2nd Niger Bridge With Abacha Loot – Fashola

It is likely that these road projects form a major cornerstone in the incumbent government's 2023 elections’ campaigns as the election would only be a year to go after the projected completion time.

Already, the Federal Ministry of Work and Housing (FMWH) has received the Outline Business Case Certificate of Compliance to start the procurement process for the concession of 12 federal highways under the HDMI. In January, the FMWH was certified to commence the concession process for the 12 pilot federal highways.

The concession of the roads may also lead to the return of toll gates by 2022 as projected since concessionaires will have to recoup their investment.

The certificate was handed over to the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission at the FMWH headquarters in Abuja.

According to The Punch, in a document on how the HDMI partnership would be executed, the FMWH said that there were two categories, Value-Added Concession and Unbundled Assets Approvals.

In the Value-Added Concession Initiative, the ministry maintained that the road pavement and entire right-of-way would be on concession for development and management by the concessionaires.

It stated that “For the Unbundled Assets Approvals initiative, approvals/permits are issued for individual assets on the right-of-way on a build, operate and or maintain basis.”

This informed us that individuals would now be permitted to develop and maintain assets on the economically viable federal highways in order to boost the economic activities on the road.

Fashola had maintained similar two weeks ago when he spoke on Classic FM’s The Discourse.

The minister said the aim of both approaches was to provide adequate highway services through the development of revenue-generating assets along the highways.  

“This is key to maintaining the functionality of the highway as well as engaging and generating wealth for indigenous small and medium enterprises,” it stated.

The HDMI was expected to be anchored on private sector engagement through the concession of economically viable routes to technically and financially capable private companies.

This will be through the management and development of the right-of-way.

Explaining how individuals and groups could participate in the scheme, the government posited that it was determined to ensure that its assets were entrusted into capable hands.

Fashola during the interview encouraged interested persons, companies and groups to form a consortium of construction/road maintenance companies, financiers, toll operators, rest house operators, advertising companies, lane marking experts, refuse managers among others.

An example of this can be seen in the ongoing rehabilitation of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway. One can observe the signpost of Sukuk Bond between Sango to Onihale, in Ado-Odo Otta, Ogun State.

All these are pointers that toll gates will soon return to some Federal highways. Fashola as a governor in Lagos State introduced toll-gate within the state, where some roads were managed and maintained by private bodies. One such is the Lekki Concession Company (LCC).