With four months left in his term, President Muhammadu Buhari gave the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited permission to invest N1.9 trillion in rebuilding 44 federal roads through the tax credit scheme.

At the conclusion of yesterday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, media assistant for media and publicity (Office of the Vice President) Laolu Akande disclosed that the approval was part of the Federal Government’s Phase 2 road infrastructure development and refurbishment investment tax credit policy, which will be carried out by NNPCL and its subsidiaries.

So, the Council approved the Ministry of Works and Housing’s proposal for the reconstruction of 44 proposed federal roads, totaling 4,554 kilometers, at a cost of N1.9 trillion, he added.

15 months after NNPCL showed interest in spending money to rebuild a few federal roads in order to maintain a steady supply and distribution of petroleum products throughout the federation, approval has come.

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After President Buhari signed Executive Order 007 on January 25, 2019, the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme was made. Its goal is to get the private sector to pay for the country’s important road infrastructure.

In accordance with the program, the presidential order gave private firms the authority to finance the building or renovation of federal highways designated as “Eligible Roads” and to recover their costs by deducting those costs from their monthly Company Income Tax.

The project is a public-private partnership (PPP) that allows the Federal Government to use the resources and skills of the private sector to build and fix up important roads in Nigeria’s most important economic areas.

The NNPC is building 1,804.6 kilometers of roads under the original program for a total of N621,237,143,897.35.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, and Plateau states got the most money—N244.87 billion—to build 791.1 kilometers of roads.

The second-greatest beneficiary was the South-South area, which includes the states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers. This region received N172.02 billion for a total of 81.9 kilometers of road.

The Southwest came in second, with a total of N81.87 billion given to build 252.7 kilometers of roads in the states of Ekiti, Lagos, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, and Oyo.

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The North East, which consists of the states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe, received N56.12 billion from the NNPCL for the project to build 273.35 kilometers of roads.

The Southeast geopolitical zone, which includes the five states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo, got N43.28 billion to build or fix up 122 kilometers of roads.

For the rehabilitation of 283.5 kilometers of road in the Northwest geopolitical zone, which includes the states of Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Jigawa, and Zamfara, the national oil company has set aside N23.05 billion.

The NNPC is paying for the road projects, while the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIR) deducts the cost from the NNPCL’s tax responsibilities.