Umahi says N800bn allocated to Works Ministry for 2025

The Minister of Works, Mr Dave Umahi, says the N800 billion allocated to the ministry in the 2025 budget is inadequate to address the country’s road infrastructure needs.

Umahi stated this in Abuja during the 2025 budget defence session organised by the House Committee on Works.

He appealed to the committee to use its legislative powers to consider increasing the ministry’s budgetary allocation for the 2025 fiscal year.

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The minister emphasised the need for adequate funding to enable the ministry to complete ongoing projects and initiate new ones across the country.

He stated that the scope of road projects the ministry was planning to undertake would not be achieved with the allocation.

Umahi said that borrowing funds to address Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit was crucial for the nation’s progress.

“ We plead with you to help us; the N800 billion cannot do anything for us. It cannot address our road needs and so we plead with you to help us.

“When the nation is in recession, you have to borrow money and invest in infrastructure.

“ That is how you emerge from a recession.

“Infrastructure is a catalyst for economic activities and this hunger we talk about will become a thing of the past.

“Food sellers sand suppliers, gravel workers and others will benefit; support President Bola Tinubu and let’s borrow money to build infrastructure so that Nigeria can be great again,” he said.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr Akin Alabi (APC-Oyo), promised to interface with the Minister of Finance and the Budget Office to unravel the rationale behind the ministry’s low budgetary allocation.

Lagos-Calabar coastal road project

David Umahi, the Minister of Works, has confirmed that funding for the Lagos-Calabar coastal road project was included in the 2025 appropriation bill. This comes after reports emerged that the project was not listed in the 2025 budget, which was presented by President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly in December 2024. In January 2025, BudgIT, a civic-tech organization advocating for transparency, pointed out that the funding for the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway was missing from the appropriation bill, sparking mixed reactions on social media. Many questioned the rationale behind the federal government demolishing properties for the project without allocating the necessary funds.