Umahi: Road projects below N20bn to be reserved for local contractors

David Umahi, the Minister of Works, says henceforth, all federal road projects valued at less than N20 billion will be awarded exclusively to indigenous contractors.

Umahi made the announcement on September 9, 2025, during an inspection of the East-West Road dualisation (Section IIIA) from Eleme Junction to Onne Junction in Rivers State.

“Going forward, in keeping with the ‘Nigeria First’ policy of the federal government, all projects that are below N20 billion will be handled by indigenous contractors,” Umahi said.

“This is to give them the opportunity for fair competition in the works industry. But generally, road constructions are capital intensive, many of them are usually above N20 billion, so any one of such that is below N20 billion will be handled by indigenous contractors.

“That doesn’t mean that they won’t compete for the ones above N20 billion. For this, both indigenous contractors and expatriates can compete for that.”

Orji Uchenna, the minister’s special adviser on media, told TheCable that the initiative is targeted at strengthening the ‘Nigeria First’ policy while giving local firms a level playing field.

“The initiative aims to prioritise indigenous firms for contracts below the N20 billion threshold. However, this does not exclude them from bidding for contracts above that amount,” he said.

The announcement comes as the ministry adopts a new funding prioritisation framework to sustain key road projects initially financed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) under the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.

Umahi noted that the framework aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s directive to continue all inherited NNPC-funded projects without interruption.

“Mr President has graciously directed that none of such works should stop,” he said.

“We are going to prioritise the most critical projects and push them forward for immediate funding.”

He added that a comprehensive list of these projects has been submitted to the presidency, with emphasis on economic corridors such as the Eleme–Onne road.