The Niger State government has appealed to the Federal government to assist in paying counterpart funding for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of minna-Bida road to enable the State access to a loan from Islamic Development Bank.
The Governor told the Minister of Work and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, that sourcing the N23 billion counterparts funding is required to get a loan for the project from the Islamic Development Bank has been the constraints for the state.
This was contained in a letter signed by the governor, Abubakar Bello, to the minister, dated 12th November, 2021.
Bello further told the Minister that the state has gotten the approval of the bank for the loan to be disbursed to the state, subject to making available the counterpart fund which is beyond the state’s capacity to raise.
The letter partly read, “We wish to confirm that the Bank did not only approve the loan, but has agreed to disburse the fund on making available cash or source for the state’s counterparts funding amounting to N23,818,530,043.06 which has been a big constrain for the state.
“Following from the above, Niger state government wishes to appeal to the Federal Government to go-ahead and disburse the sum of N23,818,530,043.06 to the contractor on certification of work done by the ministry.”
The 79 kilometers Minna-Bida road contract awarded in February 2020 by the Niger State government has suffered a major setback as only five percent of work has been carried out after the groundbreaking ceremony two years ago.
The contract for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the road was awarded to Messer Dantata Sowoe Nigeria Limited at the cost of N23.4billion with a completion period of 18 months.
The state had approached the bank for a loan of $181 million to enable it finance the project with the state government expected to pay about N23 billion as its counterpart funding to enable it access the loan.
The State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructural development, Mamman Musa, during his tours of roads projects in the state expressed displeasure over the slow pace of work by the contractor handling the road project.
“The pace at which this road is constructed cannot longer be tolerated. I am not satisfied with the progress”, he said.
Copyright PUNCH.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: [email protected]
