Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday said the present regime’s Public Private Partnership’s option for road construction was now delivering 19 road projects totalling 780.15 km across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

According to a statement by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, the Vice-President spoke at a webinar on PPP organised by the law firm of Yusuf Ali and Co. in collaboration with the Business Law Department of the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin.

The statement titled, ‘How Buhari administration is making progress in road projects through PPP – Osinbajo’ quoted Osinbajo as saying, “In 2017, we introduced the Road Trust Fund.

“The fund is a tax credit scheme to incentivise private sector participation in the development of federal road infrastructure.

“The relief is enjoyed by a deduction of 50 per cent of the amount spent on the project from the income tax that would have been payable by the company.”

Osinbajo also referred to the Executive Order No. 007 of 2019, the Companies Income Tax (Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme).

“The objective of the scheme is to accelerate public road infrastructure development by incentivising private sector entities to construct and refurbish eligible roads across the country in exchange for tax credits, which could then be applied against company income tax payable.

“Nineteen roads have been approved so far by Mr President under the scheme, totalling, 780.15km.

“These roads, in 11 states across the six geo-political zones, are being executed by six private sector players in the manufacturing and construction industries.”

Emphasising the importance of PPPs in funding critical infrastructure projects, the Vice President said “there can hardly be a better time to explore the use of PPPs especially in the delivery of public infrastructure.

By Olalekan Adetayo