Nigeria pays N13bn for Port Harcourt- Maiduguri rail project

Abiola Seun

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi yesterday said government had so far paid N13billion for the Port Harcourt – Maiduguri rail project

Speaking at the weekly Presidential Media briefing organised by the State House Media Unit, the Minister said another N10 billion would soon be paid to hasten action on the project.

He also disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari will inaugurate the construction of Kano -Kaduna rail project in the next few weeks.

The Minister said already all contracts for the projects had been awarded.

He said the project would now be funded from the Ministry’s budgetary allocation as the Federal Government would not continue to wait endlessly for the loan.

According to him, the Federal Government has already paid 218million dollars to the contractors, saying additional 100million dollars will be paid to them, making it 318million dollars.

“In the next two weeks, we should be launching and commencing immediately the construction of Kano-Kaduna rail project.

“The President will be launching it and then we will commence construction immediately.

“The reason why we are commencing construction immediately is that all the necessary contracts have been awarded.

“We have been waiting for the loan for too long from China and the money has not come.

“So, we decided to fund it from the budget. We already paid 218million dollars to them and we are about to pay another 100million dollars to make it about 318million dollars.

“Kano-Kaduna is about 1.2billion dollars – the moment you pay about 318million dollars, you must have paid one third of the project.

“So, we believe that by the time we get the loan, we must have funded up to 600million dollars.

“So, that should be able to take the project nearly half way before the fund will come because if we continue to wait for the loan whether from China or Europe, we may likely not complete it before we go,’’ he said.