|
|
Nigeria: FG, W'Bank Sign N45 Billion Deal for Road Transport
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
This Day (Lagos)
9 July 2008
Posted to the web 9 July 2008
Kunle Aderinokun
Abuja
The Federal Government yesterday signed a N45 billion ($390 million) deal with the World Bank for two important operations in the country's transport sector.
Out of the credit, $330 million is expected to be used to support the introduction of long-term performance-based contracts under the Federal Roads Development Project, while $60 million will be committed to supporting government's efforts at addressing rural transport infrastructure needs.
The $390 million is an International Development Association (IDA) credit, which is a highly concessional facility with a zero interest rate.
The credit, which is repayable in 40 years, attracts a commitment charge of 0.50 per cent per annum of un-disbursed portion and a service charge of 0.75 per cent on the amount drawn down, as well as a 10-year moratorium.
Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola, signed for the Federal Government while the World Bank Country Director, Mr. Onno Ruhl, signed on behalf of the Bretton Woods institution.
Speaking after signing the agreement, Ruhl said: "The combined effort is a demonstration of our conviction that Nigeria has great economic potential and that the country's resource endowment, its location and size should allow the emergence of strong axis for sub-Saharan Africa. Roads are key to realising this potential."
Acknowledging that the Federal Road Development Project objective was the first Federal-level transport project in the country, he said: "It is the single largest operation in the Nigeria portfolio.
"The project is based on the use of the innovative performance-based contracting, an approach that is quite on the continent and that has shown very good results elsewhere."
Ruhl, who said the country's road transport infrastructure was until few decades ago, one of the best on the continent, however said "the maintenance of the infrastructure was accorded low priority, resulting in continuous and expensive cycle of reconstruction and spiraling transportation costs."
According to him, "the project will support an ongoing government imitative to rehabilitate a set of core federal road corridors totaling about 6,300 equivalent two-lane kilometres of road estimated to cost about $2 billion.
"The support would be structured in phases and this project constitutes the first phase that will address the rehabilitation and maintenance needs of 1,198 equivalent two-lane kilometres of selected roads."
In his remarks, Babalola said $60 million was meant for the Kaduna State Rural Access and Mobility Project and would be implemented by the state government.
He clarified that the IDA credit for the project was secured by the Federal Government and would be on-lent to Kaduna State with "the aim of increasing access and mobility across the project area of the state."
The project, according to him, consisted of rehabilitation, upgrading and maintenance of about 132 river crossing structures.
Babalola expressed the hope that "with the speedy implementation of this project, the economic fortune of the people of the benefiting communities in Kaduna will be enhanced and the state's contribution to the nation's overall economic development would be increased substantially".
How much of this loan that was signed on behalf of all Nigerians would be spent in rebuilding the Niger Bridge, controlling ecological disasters and the impassable roads in the South East and other parts of the South. After all the North and West have all gotten adequate attention since the Obasanjo administration.
My suggestion to Mr. President is to disburse this loan to all the state and hold their Governors and State Assemblies accountable. Some of the loan will be tied to specific rural road projects and the balance of the amount disbursed to Fed. Min. of Works to... [Read Full Text]
This administration is bent on undoing, in all respects, what the former administration of President Obasanjo did and in this circumstance by pilling up DEBTS for the country progressively. There are billions of dollars of excess crude oil revenue from which road transport infrastucture could be implemented without going aborrowing to put the country's future generation in debt. Also with the obvious lack of proper transportation planning wherein the RAILWAYS that should carry a good percentage of the transportation load is dead and completely neglected, the money being poured into road transportation is tantamount to pouring water into... [Read Full Text]
Apparently, Nigeria will ever remain poor because of its relationship with the world bank. I do not understand why Nigeria as a country refused to learn from their past mistakes. No country that listens to the world bank can rise out of poverty, and Nigerai has been told this time and time again but they are not listening.from the 1980s when the world bank imposed on us the so called structural adjustment program we could have thought that that would teach us a valuable lesson but we are still not yet ready to wise up to pull ourselves from the... [Read Full Text]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
