Senate to Investigate Abandoned Projects Across Nigeria

An ad hoc committee was established by the Senate on Thursday to look into the quantity of abandoned projects in the nation.

This came after Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (APC-Ondo) adopted a resolution calling for an investigation into the 11,856 massive projects that the federal government had abandoned.

Ibrahim, the motion’s presenter, stated that a Presidential Committee on Abandoned Projects in Nigeria was established in 2011 by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to him, the committee toured each of Nigeria’s 36 states and found 11,866 projects that had been shelved since the country’s independence.

According to the reports, 63% of all initiatives since independence have been shelved, he claimed.

Even in cases where a project was successfully completed, he added, there was often a 40% overrun, and the majority of completed projects had a 10% underperformance.

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According to Ibrahim, Nigeria has the highest percentage of abandoned projects (63%), higher than any other nation.

“Considering that project costs account for a sizeable portion of GDP, the project’s abandonment is of great concern.”

According to him, the most important thing was to focus on the development of the infrastructure internally, since foreign direct investment (FDI) fell from 8.8 billion dollars in 2011 to 3.3 billion dollars in 2019.

According to him, it was the duty of the government to establish an expert system that would provide its people with the essential benefits of significant infrastructure development.

He claimed that the fact that 66% of projects had been shelved since 1960 amounted to a catastrophe that diminished Nigeria’s prestige as the “Giant of Africa.”

According to Ibrahim, a number of projects have remained unfinished to this day, including the Abuja mass housing project, the National Library, the Lagos Badagry Express Road, the Calabar Power Plant, the Zungery Dam, the Mambilla site, the Otiukpo Dam, Nigeria Satellite, Nitel, and the Calabar Sea Port.