FG announces preferred bidders for highway concession

The Federal Government has announced preferred bidders for the Nigeria Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI) concession programme.

This, it said, is in line with its objective to attract private sector technical expertise, managerial capacity and financial resources to improve the quantity and quality of road assets in Nigeria.

The government said the move is with a view to propelling rapid economic development and growth through the haulage of passengers and goods.

Sources familiar with the HDMI programme confirm that the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) have commenced notification of preferred bidders for the programme.

The next phase of the programme is the negotiation stage, during which preferred bidders will be invited to negotiate financial terms to be used by the ministry and its advisers to develop and submit a Full Business Case (FBC) to the ICRC for compliance certification and onward transmission to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for final approval.

Some of the preferred bidders selected for 12 routes to be concessioned include Africa Finance Corporation (AFC)/Mota Engel Consortium (Shagamu–Benin and Lagos–Badagry), Africa Plus Partners Consortium (Benin–Asaba and Lagos–Abeokuta), CCCC-CGC-Hdwaks Joint Venture (Ilorin–Jebba), Dafac Consortium (Kano–Shuari), Enyimba Economic City Development Company Consortium (Enugu–Port Harcourt and Onitsha–Aba).

In a previous engagement with the media, Acting Director-General of ICRC, Mike Ohiani, said that Nigeria’s new Tolling Policy was approved by FEC in 2021, noting that the ICRC, in the exercise of its statutory mandate, reviewed and certified the 12 OBCs to enable the project move to the private sector procurement stage.

“In doing that, the Commission provided PPP pre-contract regulatory guidance to the Federal Ministry of Works for the bid documents,” he said.

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, also said the policy was developed after due consultations with various stakeholders in the transportation sector.

Roads to be affected include the 12 roads that are considered under the HDMI include: Benin–Asaba Abuja–Lokoja, Kano–Katsina Onitsha–Owerri–Aba, Shagamu–Benin, Abuja–Keffi–Akwanga, Kano–Shuari, Potiskum–Damaturu, Lokoja–Benin, Enugu–Port Harcourt, Ilorin–Jebba, Lagos-Otta–Abeokuta and Lagos–Badagry.

This initiative attracts a broad range of civil engineering and construction companies and, for the first time, major infrastructure development finance corporations – specifically the AFC and Africa Plus Partners. Both organisations have also partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCo) in a separate deal, alongside other investors to unlock approximately N8 trillion of pension funds for investment into infrastructure projects across Nigeria.