A Project Management Perspective to the Management of Federal Roads in Nigeria: A Case Study of Minna-Bida Road

This paper is the report of a study on the improvement of road infrastructure in Nigeria using the Minna- Bida road as a case study. The N1.414 trillion which has been appropriated for the road sector in Nigeria since 1999 is seen as an acknowledgement of the crucial role of road transportation in national development. There are views that inadequate funding has contributed substantially to the deplorable condition of some roads, specifically the Minna-Bida road axis; which is additional to the lack of robust project management strategies capable of sustaining these investments. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Nigeria needs a sustainable framework which would ensure the preservation of her road transportation infrastructure; the attainment of which is affected by the level of funding. This paper highlights the failure of direct conventional tolling and makes a case for Public Private Partnership (PPP), by concessioning, as a means of achieving sustainable preservation of the road transportation infrastructure in Nigeria. The financial viability of both the conventional tolling and the modified shadow-toll concession (STC) models were tested using the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value (NPV). The result shows that while the STC model is financially viable, the conventional tolling model is not.