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Let’s borrow more money to address infrastructure needs-works minister

THE Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has stated that the N800bn allocated to his ministry in the 2025 budget proposal is insufficient to address Nigeria’s road infrastructure challenges.



According to him, borrowing funds to address the nation’s infrastructure needs would be a positive move for the country’s future.

Speaking on Friday January 17, 2025, during a budget defence session by the House committee on works, the former Ebonyi governor urged the committee to consider increasing the ministry’s allocation for the 2025 fiscal year.




     

     

    “We plead with you to help us. N800bn cannot do anything for us. It cannot address our road needs and so we plead with you to help us,” Umahi said.

    Umahi urged the committee to allocate sufficient funds to the ministry to allow for the completion of ongoing projects and the initiation of new ones across the country.

    “When the nation is in recession, you have to borrow money and do infrastructure. That is how you come out of a recession. It is the infrastructure that is going to be a catalyst for economic activities and then this hunger we are talking about will be a thing of the past.

    The food sellers will be there, those doing sharp sand, those doing gravel and so on. Support Mr. President and let’s borrow money and do this infrastructure so that Nigeria will be great again,” Umahi said.

    Akin Alabi, the committee chairman, assured that he would invite the Minister of Finance and the head of the Budget Office to clarify the reason behind the ministry’s insufficient budget.

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    The ICIR reports that President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, presented Nigeria’s 2025 budget .
    INEC had also requested for N126 billion instead of the N40 billion the government budgeted for it in the proposed budget, which was made known by the commission’s chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, while defending the 2024 budget implementation before the National Assembly on Friday, January 10, 2025.

    Fatimah Quadri is a Journalist and a Fact-checker at The ICIR. She has written news articles, fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy in an effort to combat information disorder.
    She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or fquadri@icirnigeria.org

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