BEVERLY HILLS, January 29, (THEWILL) – The Infrastructure Bank (TIB) plc has assured of full resumption of work on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, saying additional funding of N50 billion has been secured for the project which is expected to cost N167 billion
Adekunle Oyinloye, managing director of the bank, who spoke on the determination of stakeholders to deliver the road, after the TIB board meeting in Abuja, urged motorists not to despair by the current lull on the road, but to embrace the conviction that the nation’s number-one highway shall be completed in due course.
Oyinloye said that as soon as the legal issues surrounding the project were resolved, construction work, which he had reached 30 percent completion stage, would resume in earnest adding that all the stakeholders on the project, including the Federal Ministry of Works, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) and the contractors – Julius Berger and RCC – were determined to ensure its completion by the July 2017 scheduled date.
Oyinloye commended the perception of Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, on the state of infrastructure in Nigeria and the concept of Public Private Partnership in rescuing them from decay.
“The TIB has a clear mission of transforming Nigeria’s infrastructure for enhanced national productivity by interfacing between the market for the public sector lending and private sector infrastructure project financing,” he said.
He also disclosed that the bank was working on the design of a new 280-kilometre ‘’green-field dual carriageway’’ that would link Abuja with Ibadan through Kwara State having secured the Federal Ministry of Work’s ‘’no objection’’ to develop the planned ‘’green-field’’ dual carriageway, which he said, will reduce travelling time from the present 10 hours to five hours and will generate thousands of job opportunities and unlock the economic potentials of the corridor.
He also said the bank provided the ‘’catalyst loan’’ for the development of a 20,000 mass housing units for federal para-military forces and was actively involved in the $1 billion renewable energy project in the 19 Northern states and the $2 billion 37-kilometre Alagbado – Marina Lagos red-line rail project.
Story by David Oputah
