FG Says Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, 2nd Niger Bridge, Others Ready  Q1, 2022 

By Our Correspondent

The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Second Niger Bridge, and the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, among others, are to be completed in the first quarter of 2022, the Federal Government has said.

It said the roads were grouped as essential infrastructure and projected to be delivered in less than two years.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said this in a live television programme monitored by our correspondent in Abuja on Thursday night.

 “The Second Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano roads are part of the projects under the Federal Government’s essential infrastructure development fund and their expected delivery dates are in quarter one of 2022″, Fashola said.

 The Minister argued that real construction work only commenced on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway when the current government came to power.

Fashola said, “Since 2007, no measure of reasonable construction work took place on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, except palliatives. It was when this government came that construction really started. “Those who don’t use the road will not appreciate what is going on there, but those who use the road on a daily basis for their survival will tell you that the bottlenecks and traffic time on that road had significantly reduced.”

Meanwhile the Federal Government has written the National Assembly, seeking its approval for $1.2 billion agricultural loan from Brazil and Deutsche Bank; to set up mechanisation service centres in 632 local governments of the country.

The $1.2 billion loan would be deployed under The Green Imperative programme, which is a Nigeria-Brazil Bilateral Agriculture Development Programme.

The programme would be implemented over a period of five to 10 years, with funding from the Development Bank of Brazil (BNDES) and Deutsche Bank; with insurance provided by Brazilian Guarantees and Fund Managements Agency (ABGF) and the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Export Credit (ICIEC) of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and coordinated by Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV).

The loan agreement has been signed by the two countries; since 2017.

According to Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and his counterpart in Agriculture and Rural Development, Sani Nanono, the programme would essentially be private sector-driven.

Mohammed also explained that the programme “is one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s initiatives to attract our younger ones into farming.