BUA Cement Plc has been given a contract to build a 60-kilometre stretch of the Benin-Lokoja Highway under the NNPCL Funding and Infrastructure and Development Refreshment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.
The expressway is undergoing rehabilitation.
The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, who dropped the hint yesterday, said the portion given to BUA would be excised from the 284-km road awarded for N896 billion in 2012 to four contractors.
According to the Minister, the new arrangement became necessary because out of the N897 billion, only N122 billion was available from the Tax Credit Scheme, leaving a shortfall of N775 billion.
The minister spoke in Abuja when the Edo State Senate Caucus leaders – Senators Adams Oshiomhole and Monday Okpebholo visited him at work.
The senators visited to express appreciation over the approval by President Bola Tinubu for the completion of the road.
At the meeting where the minister said the his ministry has to find the means to bridge the funding gap, were representatives of BUA Cement and the four other road contractors.
The minister informed that it was at that point that BUA came into the arrangement with the tax credit option.
He also disclosed that the contractors handling the project would be mobilised with about N9 billion each, which he noted would be enough to complete six-kilometre stretch on their sections.
Umahi said because of the complexity of the project and the socio-economic importance of the road, 10 kilometres would be excised from the existing contractors for BUA for completion in six months.
The minister said that BUA must deploy the concrete technology on the 60-km road with three contractors to handle the project and deliver on schedule.
