The Federal Government has disclosed that it plans to complete the dualisation of the Abuja-Lokoja- Benin highway. The project would be funded by instruments like the Sukuk Fund.
This was disclosed by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMWH) on Wednesday.
Nairametrics reported this month that the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, stated that the Ministry’s priority in its 2021 budget is to complete already ongoing road and bridge projects across the nation. He added that 711 road projects had been shortlisted for infrastructure Funding Mechanisms, which are projects to be financed through initiatives including Sovereign Sukuk Fund.
The Federal Executive Council approved N87 billion to upscale the country’s road infrastructure in the North-Central, South-west, middle belt and South-South geo-political zones.
Nairametrics reported in July that The Federal Government will fix 44 roads with the Sukuk funds raised in the bond market. Fashola disclosed a sovereign Sukuk Symbolic cheque of N162.55 billion was presented to him by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed in Abuja.
The Ministry of works said the ongoing dualisation of Abuja-Lokoja-Benin highway would be completed before December 2021.
Engr. Yusuf Jimoh-Adekunle, Director Highways, disclosed that Sukuk bond is an alternative means to fund infrastructure projects in Nigeria.
“We now have the SUKUK, we have Tax Relief, we have loans that we got from China NEXIM on some other projects.
“This particular project is enjoying the SUKUK loan apart from the budgetary provisions,” he said.
The Ministry added that the dualisation of section 1 of the Lokoja-Benin road will go through 2 phases.
“We are on phase II now and it is about 41 kilometres. The total length of both phase one and phase two is about 58.15 km.
“The contractor, CGC Nig. has partially completed phase one which included about 14km Okene by-pass virgin dual carriageway, except for some little issues which will be cleared, although it has been opened to traffic for more than two years now.
“So, it is now left for the contractor to work harder to be able to access the provisions made for them within budget and from SUKUK funding, We have about N2.5 billion to access this year 2020,” he said. Nairametrics
