The minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has revealed the first phase of the Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI) of his administration billed to concession 10 federal highways will create 46, 694 jobs for Nigerians.
He made this disclosure while delivering the keynote address on a Lagos Business School (LBS) Webinar on Public Private Partnerships (PPP) for the National Highway Development and Management Initiative.
“The first phase which is the concession of 10 highways will require N160 billion at approximately N16 billion per road. And we anticipate that it will create 46, 694 direct jobs and generate even more indirect jobs in addition to spin off revenues,” he said.
Fashola explained the total length of the federal road network is 35,000km, but the proposed project in the first phase, made up of 10 highways, covers a total length of 2.275km (or 6.3 per cent of the total length).
On how the jobs would be created, Fashola said the programme had been designed in such a way that it will provide economic opportunities for people from all works of life.
According to him, investors are expected to provide streetlights, toll plazas, rest areas, and weighbridge stations among many others, adding all of them would require labour and different special skills, thus creating opportunities for different categories of artisans.