Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello
The Niger State government has appealed to the Federal government to assist in paying the counterpart funding for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Minna-Bida road, to enable the state to access a loan from Islamic Development Bank.
The governor told the Minister of Work and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, that sourcing the N23bn counterpart fund, which was required to get a loan for the project from the IDB, has constituted a major constraint for the state government.
This was contained in a letter signed by the governor, Abubakar Bello, and addressed to the minister. The letter was dated November 12, 2021.
Bello further told the minister that the state has received approval of the bank for the loan, subject to making available the counterpart fund which is beyond the state’s capacity to raise.
The letter read in part, “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-kilometre Minna-Bida road contract awarded in February 2020 by the Niger State government has suffered a major setback as only five per cent of work has been carried out after the groundbreaking event about 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 N23.4bn with a completion period of 18 months.
The state had approached the bank for a loan of $181m to enable it finance the project with the state government expected to pay about N23bn as its counterpart funding to enable it to 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 can no longer be tolerated. I am not satisfied with the progress”, he said.