The Senate has set up an ad-hoc committee to review over 11,000 important projects that have been abandoned across the country in all sectors that initiated the projects.
The committee should also recommend appropriate actions to be taken to reduce project abandonment in Nigeria and how most of the projects can be recovered.
This is a single prayer of a motion on the urgent Need to look into the 11 thousand 856 Mega Projects abandoned Nation wide sponsored and presented by Senator Jimo Ibrahim representing Ondo South.
Presenting the motion before the Senate plenary this Thursday, it was noted that in 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan set up a Presidential Committee on Federal Government Abandoned Projects in Nigeria.
He said the committee visited the 36 states in Nigeria and identified 11 thousand 866 projects abandoned by the Federal Government since Nigeria’s independence in 1960;
Senator Jimo Ibrahim further noted that 63% of projects abandoned in Nigeria were worse than in any other country for comparison.
He also said the abandoned projects were of significant concern due to their costs, which constitute a significant part of the GDP.
While spending on public projects in the UK is now about one trillion British pounds, Nigeria has no idea of the total amount spent on public projects, whether successful or unsuccessful, since independence.
He observed that the cost overruns and benefits shortfalls of projects in Nigeria are significant.
Giving an example from an investigation carried out by a doctorate student in management science at the University of Cambridge between 2018 and 2022, he noted that the 38 projects investigated cost Nigeria over $40 billion.
Senator Jimo Ibrahim said that what was now key to this investigation is the need to look inward at our infrastructural development, as Foreign Direct Investment declined from $8.8 billion in 2011 to $3.3 billion in 2019, and the current account balance in that year dropped from $10.6 billion to $5.17 billion.
Bashir M
