The Minister of Works, David Umahi, announced that the Ministry will not propose any new projects for the 2025 fiscal year, aiming to minimise or eliminate the occurrence of abandoned projects.

This is as he decries N16 trillion funding gap on an ongoing over 4,000 projects he claimed the current administration inherited.

He made this statement during a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday, marking his first year in office.

The minister said, “We will not propose new projects for the 2025 fiscal year unless otherwise dictated by Mr. President.

“I’m going to tell the Ministry of Finance to provide funds for us to complete ongoing projects.

“Right now, we have over 4,000 ongoing projects and a funding gap of N16tn, most of them were inherited by this administration.

“Some of these projects were awarded when the naira was exchanged for N150 to $1USD.”

The minister further explained that inflation has contributed significantly to the rising cost of most of these projects and it would be in the nation’s best interest.

PUNCH