Nigeria is set to rehabilitate 1,000 kilometres rural roads in Ekiti State. The State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, disclosed the report and said that the project is addition to the rehabilitation of all the 177 primary health centres and all public primary schools in the state.
The Governor revealed that the 2020 fiscal year budget would focus more on the rural areas thereby bringing deserved development to the areas through tarring and rehabilitation of roads as well as improvement to the health, education, power sectors and erosion control.
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Road rehabilitation
The Governor affirmed that that the government would undertake rehabilitation and tarring of 1,000km of rural roads through the Rural Access to Market Programme (RAMP), in partnership with the World Bank.
“The issue of road came up on the requests of all the communities. These roads are divided into two, the rural roads and township roads. We are going to rehabilitate 5km road in each of the local governments, annually.
Nigeria’s annual traffic fatality rate was reported as 5,000 in 2008. A major contributor to this statistic is the poor condition of the roads. The country has 120,546-mile network of roads, the quality of which is generally crumbling because they are poorly maintained. Heavy travel on major roads accelerates the wear, vehicle accidents are very common, and the fatality rate is high.
Potholes are numerous, leading drivers to swerve around them, sometimes putting themselves and those in other vehicles at risk. There are frequent delays when vehicles have to slow down. Lagos, the capital city, is notorious for its slow traffic. Some roads have deteriorated so badly they are impassable.
