‘FERMA yet to get cash from PMS sales for 12 years’

The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has decried its inability to access fund from the sale of petroleum product for the repairs of roads across the country.

Section 4(h) of the FERMA Act (2007 as amended) stipulates five percent user’s charge on pump price for petrol, diesel and of which 40 percent will accrue to FERMA and 60 percent to be utilized by the established State Roads Maintenance Agencies.

It is believed that the money accrued yearly from PMS sales is twice the agency’s annual capital appropriation. The capital appropriation for the agency in 2018 was N32 billion.

The Managing Director of FERMA, Nurudeen Rafindadi said the agency’s inability to access the funds has hampered the repairs and maintenance of roads.

Rafindadi who spoke to some reporters in Abuja after the inauguration of the new board of the agency, also hinted that the agency requires over five times its annual budget to fix roads.

He urged the Federal Government to pay similar attention given to security to the road sector, adding that it would boost the economy.

On some of its constraint, he said: “We appeal for the implementation of some aspects of FERMA Act which enables raising of resources and financing which are so far not being implemented.

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“You are aware of the stipulation in the FERMA Act that is meant to accrue from the pricing of petroleum product. That is not being implemented right now. It will take a lot of hard work which I think this board is quite capable to do and if we are able to do that, that can double more of the financing for the maintenance of roads and the public will see a lot of difference.

“We have not started accessing that fund.  There are lots of intricacies and modalities of accessing that but what I know is that since the amendment of the Act since 2007, that money has been accruing somewhere in the Executive and we are trying to gather the capacity to find that out.

“We also know that a rough guess will give at least double the capital annual budget coming from that source alone.”

On how much the agency requires to perform optimally, Rafindadi said: “In 2018, our capital budget was N32 billion. How much was actually released was less than 50 percent. FERMA requires more than four to five times the amount budgeted for it annually because we have 36,000km of federal roads, we also know that there are state government that have capital budget for their own roads that are higher than FERMA’s budget.

“Lagos State for instance, I am aware that back in 2015 had over N50 billion to maintain their roads. That gives you an idea of the seriousness of the kind of resources we need.