The Federal Government says more than 17,500 road construction workers are too be re-engaged as contractors return to project sites across the country.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, made this known when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that the contractors had declared their readiness to re-engage workers, who were laid off due to the huge debt owed by the Federal Government in the past three years.
“We are trying to ensure that everybody (contractors and workers) go back as quickly as possible to have the most effective impact.
“Just by speaking to 20 of our road contractors yesterday on the number of people they have laid off who they can move back to work. The return that I got was over 17,500 people that they would re-engage.
“So, that is the first step. We have over 200 road projects, so, that is just 20 contractors and we are going to be meeting with more.
“Now, that’s change. People who lost their work are coming back to work. That’s what this budget brings.
“Capital expenditure for the ministry is about N353 (billion). That’s a lot different from what we had in 2015.’’
Fashola criticised the failure of the previous governments to settle debts owed contractors, a situation, which he said, had created enormous challenges even in the face of dwindling oil revenue.
Fashola said government’s target in 2016 is to make about 2,000 kilometres of road network motorable.
He explained that the current administration would ensure the completion of all strategic roads demanding urgent attention before undertaking other road rehabilitation projects.
“There are roads that only sections of them are bad. There are roads that are really devastated that need to be totally rebuilt.
“And so, that is why our target is to make about 2,000 km of roads motorable network this ye