By Dipo Olowookere
A 10-year tax incentive has been granted to Dangote Group by the Federal Government after the company agreed to rehabilitate the Apapa to Oworonshoki Expressway.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, speaking on Friday at an event in Lagos, stated that, “We inherited a tax incentive policy for individuals to benefit from tax remission, to recover investment made in public infrastructure like roads, which other members of the public can utilise.”
Mr Fashola, who was a guest at the BusinessDay Road Construction Summit, Federal Government approved a review of the five-year limit on tax order enjoyed by the company to 10 years after Dangote agreed to work on the Apapa to Oworonshoki end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Further explaining the rationale behind the upward review of the tax incentive, the Minister said, “The five-year limit on that tax order to a 10-year period (was) to sustain private investment in road infrastructure, because it is a long-term asset.”
According to him, pending applications from Dangote Group were not approved by the previous administration, but that this present administration has now approved them, stressing that work has commenced on the 42.9 km Obajana – Kabba road in Kogi State.
He added that on the agreement with Dangote, government was now awaiting the design of the 35km stretch excluding the portion that has been completed, about 7km, by the previous administration around Mile 2 area.
Mr Fashola noted that from the design, government will determine the cost and the scope of works which it hoped would be executed quickly.
He said government was committed to solving the Apapa and port congestion problem.
Furthermore, the Minister said government had reviewed the order by amending individual investment to include groups of individuals because not all potential investors can individually muster the resources alone but can do so as a group, and recover their pro-rated share.”
Mr Aliko Dangote is building an oil refinery in Lagos and has investments worth billions of Dollar across Africa. He is, according Forbes, Africa’s richest man.
