The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has said that the federal government is still awaiting the Chinese government to approve $5.3 billion loan request.
Ameachi noted that once the loan which was requested for a year ago is approved, the construction of the Ibadan to Kano rail project will commence. The Minister disclosed this during an interview on a television programme in Abuja on Saturday. Contrary to the claim that the government had gotten the loan, he explained that what was approved by the government was the approval for the contract.
He said: “We are waiting for the Chinese government and bank to approve the $5.3bn to construct the Ibadan-Kano. What was approved a year ago was the contract. The moment I announced that federal government has awarded a contract of $5.3bn to CCECC to construct Ibadan-Kano, they assumed the money has come in, but not so. Up till now, we have not gotten the money and it is a year after we applied for the loan. We have almost finished the project of Lagos-Ibadan. If we don’t get the loan now, we can’t commence.”
On the route the project will take, he said: “The Ibadan-Kano rail would link six areas which are Kaduna-Kano-Abuja-Minna-Ilorin-Osogbo and Ibadan which will make it easy for cargoes to be moved to Kano from Lagos. On the funding of the rail projects, Amaechi stated that his ministry has presidential approval to borrow money to fund projects.
