Federal Government has blamed poor funding for the slow pace of rehabilitation and expansion of the East-West Road since the contract was awarded in 2006.
Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Umana, disclosed this at the 12th edition of Ministerial Scorecard presentation by President Muhammadu Buhari Administration (2015-2023), yesterday, in Abuja.

The administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo awarded the contract in 2006, while the current administration,ed by Buhari, revived the abandoned project.
The road project is a four-lane dual-carriage 361km highway, which traverses states such as Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River.

Some sections of the road project were handed over to the Federal Ministry of Works on March 30, 2022, following the inability of the Niger Delta Ministry to fast-track the projects.

But while answering questions from journalists, Umana said a major limitation to completion of the project had to do with appropriation of funds.
“Appropriation every year had been clearly inadequate to support the execution of this project,” he said.

He, however, said other sources of funding had been outlined by the government and would be effectively implemented.
The minister said:
“Recently, a creative solution to complete these projects, which have been pending and ongoing for too long is that the Ministry of Works and Housing and the Federal Ministry of Finance came up with the tax relief scheme, which has now made it possible to fund projects like this and several key road projects, which suffered over the years because of insufficient appropriation.”

“Those projects through the tax credit scheme, SUKUK funds, and other special funds are now being seriously addressed and some have now been completed. The East-West route, I am happy to report, is now benefiting from this arrangement. It was also important that the cost of the project should be reviewed and only recently the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the variation costs of the sections of the road still outstanding.”

The minister further disclosed that funds had been recovered after the forensic audit conducted in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
He, however, would not disclose the exact amount recovered, saying a compilation was still going on.

On the delay in the composition of the NDDC board, he said: “The names of the nominees have been submitted to the Senate by the President. There were issues about the legality of former Board, which was disbanded.”