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Bettesworth Construction
FERMA

Nigeria’s Roads: Time to Prioritize Maintenance Over New Construction

FERMA says the Federal Government spends more on new roads and bridges than on maintaining existing federal roads. The case is for better-funded, measurable maintenance—not abandoning justified new links.

By Bettesworth Construction Team 4 min read

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Nigeria should give more attention and reliable funding to maintaining existing roads before launching another round of new construction. The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) says the Federal Government spends more on new roads and bridges than on maintaining existing federal roads. That statement supports a shift in priorities, not a halt to every new route: the case for any project should rest on road condition, connectivity needs, funding, and evidence of delivery.

Does the government spend more on new roads than maintaining existing federal roads?

FERMA’s FAQ answers yes: “The Federal Government spends more on new roads/bridges.” The agency does not attach a year or a quantified spending breakdown to that comparison, so it is an official statement of spending emphasis, not a published series showing how much went to each purpose. It refers to federal roads; it should not be generalized to the condition or spending priorities of every state and local road network. FERMA’s FAQ

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That distinction matters. A new road is visible and can open a route, while maintenance is often less conspicuous: clearing drainage, patching potholes, treating pavement failures, and repairing bridge components. But letting defects worsen can turn routine work into larger rehabilitation or emergency repairs. FERMA reports tracking outputs such as road length maintained, potholes patched, washouts reinstated, and bridge work. The available figures do not quantify how much preventive maintenance saves, so the argument for prioritizing it should rest on timely serviceability and transparent results—not an invented cost multiplier. FERMA

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What do FERMA’s budget figures show—and what do they not show?

Budget figures describe different stages of funding. A proposal is not an appropriation; an appropriation is not a release; and a release is not proof that work was completed. The figures reported during FERMA’s January 2025 budget defence illustrate why those stages must stay separate.

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Figure What it represents What it does not establish
₦64.888 billion FERMA’s proposed 2025 budget, reported by the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation in January 2025. It comprised ₦4.9 billion for personnel, ₦33.468 billion for overhead, and ₦26.487 billion for capital. Ministry report It is a proposal, not proof of the final approved amount, the sum released, or the amount spent on maintenance projects.
₦96.7 billion FERMA’s reported 2024 appropriation, according to the same ministry report. It is not an amount released or spent.
₦103.3 billion The reported 2024 appropriation after a later increase. It does not establish that the increased amount was released or converted into completed work.
₦41.282 billion The amount reported as released from FERMA’s 2024 budget by the time of the agency’s January 2025 budget defence. It is a release figure at that reporting point, not total expenditure or a measure of road work completed.

FERMA said inadequate releases of its 2024 budget negatively affected its ability to maintain roads. That is a stated delivery constraint, but the figures alone do not show which roads received work or how much of the released funding reached particular maintenance activities. The ministry’s January 2025 report

Maintenance, rehabilitation, emergency repair and construction are different choices

“Maintenance” is not a substitute for every other kind of road work. A sound investment plan distinguishes interventions by the condition and purpose of each asset.

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  • Routine maintenance: recurring work such as clearing drains and patching potholes to keep a serviceable road functioning.
  • Rehabilitation: more substantial repairs when deterioration has progressed beyond routine treatment.
  • Emergency repair: urgent work after a washout, bridge problem, or other immediate hazard.
  • New construction: a new link or capacity that may address an access or connectivity gap.

Prioritizing maintenance means acting early where it can preserve safe, usable roads and identifying when an asset instead needs rehabilitation or emergency intervention. It does not mean treating every road as though it has the same defect or that maintenance can restore a route that requires reconstruction.

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Why the case is about balance, not stopping new roads

The Federal Ministry of Works’ December 2023 presentation on the 2024 highway budget described several aims: completing some ongoing projects, proposing 693 new projects, rehabilitating bridges, and addressing other needs. The 693 figure is a proposal count for that budget, not a count of completed roads or proof that the projects were fully funded. The presentation also named inadequate funding as a challenge to highway development. Federal Ministry of Works presentation

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New routes can be justified where they meet a genuine connectivity need. Yet a new link can have limited value if existing roads that feed into it are failing. The practical question is not “maintenance or construction in every case?” but whether funding is sequenced against condition and need—and whether both new and existing assets will be maintained over their useful lives.

The sources cited here do not establish a current, comparable condition assessment covering federal, state, and local roads nationwide. FERMA’s FAQ also leaves its own question about the condition of the federal network unanswered. Claims that a specific share of Nigeria’s roads is good or poor therefore need a newer, traceable dataset; they cannot be inferred from budget figures or a project list. FERMA’s FAQ

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What should a more accountable road programme publish?

Funding priorities are difficult to assess when readers cannot connect allocations to releases and finished work. Public reporting should make that chain visible for maintenance and construction alike.

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  • Road and project identity: name the route, location, responsible tier of government, intervention, and reason it was prioritized.
  • Funding stage: report the proposal, approved appropriation, releases, and expenditure separately, with dates and project-level amounts.
  • Work completed: document outputs such as road length treated, potholes patched, drainage cleared, washouts reinstated, and bridge components repaired.
  • Condition evidence: publish the road’s condition before treatment and follow-up checks after completion, using a consistent method.
  • Lifecycle responsibility: explain design and drainage choices, expected loading and weather exposure, and who is responsible for future maintenance.
  • Reason for construction: state the connectivity gap a new route addresses and explain how it ranked against urgent work on existing roads.

Without comparable condition data and project-level delivery records, the public can identify the stated imbalance but cannot calculate a precise nationwide maintenance shortfall or verify the full effect of each budget increase. That is a reason to improve reporting—not to substitute unsupported ratios for evidence.

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