The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, says Nigeria hasn’t yet received the loan requested from China for the Ibadan-Kaduna rail project.
It would be recalled that the federal government made a request of about $6.7bn to the China EXIM Bank to fund the project.
The government had signed a $6.68 billion contract agreement for the Ibadan-Kaduna segment of the Lagos-Kano rail line with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).
Nigeria is to provide 15 percent counterpart funding for the project. The minister said the Nigerian government is ready, but told journalists in Lagos yesterday after an emergency inspection of the Ebutte Metta to Apapa axis of the Lagos-Ibadan rail project that funds hadn’t been released to Nigeria yet.
The Apapa end of the project is the major obstacle in delivering the project in May 2020, Daily Trust gathered.
The minister had expressed his frustration with CCECC’s pace of work on the corridor. The complaints prompted the chairman of CCECC Group, Mr. Zhao Dianlong, to arrive Nigeria Thursday to join the minister on the inspection yesterday.
On the Ibadan-kaduna Amaechi assured that once the funds were made available, the job would be delivered as scheduled.
