- FERMA proposed a 2025 budget of N64.88 billion for road maintenance, prioritizing major trunk ‘A’ roads across Nigeria
- The agency faces significant funding challenges, requiring over N700 billion annually to effectively maintain federal roads nationwide
The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has proposed N64.88 billion for road maintenance in Nigeria’s 2025 budget.
According to FERMA’s Director (Information/PR), Maryam M. Sanusi (Mrs.), the agency’s supervising minister, Minister of State for Works, Muhammad Bello Goronyo, revealed this during the opening presentation of the budget defence before the joint session of the Senate and House Committees on FERMA, and that the estimates included N4.9 billion for personnel costs, N33.468 billion for overhead costs, and N26.487 billion for capital costs.
The budget prioritises key trunk ‘A’ highways within the six geographic zones, in line with Mr President’s Renewed Hope Agenda development and economic recovery goals.
The amount is less than the N77 billion anticipated for the year 2024.
The minister stated that FERMA is committed to ensuring transparency and accountability through data-driven decision-making and regular community engagement in road maintenance planning.
He disclosed that in collaboration with the committees and key stakeholders, efforts to reduce the burden on federal government maintenance of road assets nationwide is being looked into.
“FERMA is in the process of developing, modifying and redefining key policies, which will generate resources for the agency to proactively maintain our roads for ease of movement”.
In his presentation before the committees, the Managing Director of FERMA, Engr. Emeka Agbasi, said adequate funding is needed to enable the agency to increase its activities in preventive maintenance and other interventions on federal roads across the country.
He stressed that the agency is faced with enormous challenges as a result of low budgetary allocation. He noted that inadequate releases of funds for the 2024 budget, has negatively affected the ability of the agency to maintain the roads.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on FERMA, Sen. Hussaini Babangida, on his part, frowned at the practice of continuous construction of new roads without adequate measures to maintain existing ones.
He noted that the allocation for road maintenance is highly inadequate because of the poor conditions of the roads.
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