FG approves $20m transportation plan loan for Lagos State

Tayo Oladipupo

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the loan of $20 million for Lagos state strategic transportation plan.

The sum is part of the total $247 million loan approval granted at the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The other $227 million loan is for rural electrification and West Africa Power projects.

The minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, who announced the loan approval, said the Lagos transportation project when completed will benefit 1.8 million people in the state.

Lagos state she said has the capacity to repay the loan.

She briefed State House Correspondents alongside with Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, FCT Minister, Bello Mohammed and Senior Special Assistant to the President,  Garba Shehu.

She explained that the country’s borrowing is still within limit.

When completed, the project is expected to impact 1.8 million inhabitants of Lagos State and accumulative 1.5 million users per day for inter-model inter-changes without about 620,000 boarding at Mile 2 and 480,000 boarding at Marina. Another estimated 630,000 boarding at QBS.

“The project is being undertaken by Lagos State agency, LAMATA under its own strategy.

“So the federal government is borrowing to unlearn to Lagos following the same terms and conditions that we signed.

“Our assessment is that Lagos state has the capacity to repay the loan.”

The Council also approved $150 million loan facility from African development bank and $50 million loan from African Grow Together Fund to finance the Nigeria electrification project.

The project, the Minister said “is a nationwide initiative to be implemented by the rural electrification agency. The project aligns with the strategy of federal government on electrifying rural community. ”

She said: “The third loan approval is $20 million, for the Lagos State Strategic Transport Master Plan, this facility is from the French Development Agency.

“The objective of the project is to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of Lagos urban area and to promote urban development sitting by efficient and effective transport system.

“The project has two major components, first is to rehabilitate urban roads and the creation of minimum of eight equality bus corridors and the creation of two multi-model inter-changes at Marina and Mile 2. The second objective is to provide technical support for implementation and management.