Nigeria to Employ 47,000 Workers to Fix Highways Through FERMA

Nigeria to Employ 47,000 Workers to Fix Highways Through FERMA

Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola on Thursday stated that the federal government plans to hire up to 47,000 workers to work on the reconstruction of federal roads across the country.

The minister while speaking with members of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) in Abuja said the 47,000 workers would comprise mostly of artisans and technicians.

Fashola stressed that vocational education had contributed significantly to the development of countries like Singapore, Canada and South Africa, adding that Nigeria had no choice but to look into shaping its educational system to suit the growth of the economy.

The minister told participants at the stakeholders’ meeting on the state of technical education in the country, that his ministry had would engage artisans and technicians through the the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA).

Fashola said, “Now, Nigeria is investing heavily in infrastructure. In the 2016 national budget, capital allocation alone was N1.8tn, which is a jump to 30 per cent of the total budget. We are currently planning for all these infrastructure that we are building, and I’m happy that the Chairman, House Committee on Works (Mr Toby Okechukwu) is here.

“The idea is to actually change FERMA, which is to review the FERMA law and come up with another law. The essence is that FERMA should ultimately be the biggest construction company in this country. The idea is to employ about 47,000 people just to fix roads and the plan is there.”

Fashola expressed the hope that the plan could be implemented with the support of the legislature and by working closely with the Nigerian Senate and the Federal House of Representatives.

Punch quotes President of COREN, Mr Kashim Ali, to have said that the National Council on Works directed the agency to organise the meeting in order to allow stakeholders deliberate on the state of Nigerian technical colleges with a view to creating a truly unique platform for shaping the country’s future