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Federal Government has introduced three alternative funding sources to enable it deliver on infrastructure projects.
“The first type of alternative funding source is the Sukkuk, which is a type of Islamic loan with almost 0% interest rate.
“The loan does not only have minimal interest rate, it is also very affordable. It is very attractive to the government.
“Though no project in Lagos has benefitted from it, the Federal Government has picked 25 roads nationwide across the six geopolitical zones to benefit from the loan,” controller of Works in Lagos State, Mr. Adedamola Kuti, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos yesterday.
He said the first tranche of the Sukkuk funding released to the government was N100 billion, adding that this sum was divided equally to projects across the six geopolitical zone.
Projects in the South West benefitting from the funding are the Ajebandele-Sagamu Road and the Oyo-Ibadan Road, he said.
The second source of funding is the National Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).
He said five critical projects in Nigeria were benefitting from the special funding in hard currency.
“The projects benefitting from the funding include the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road, and the Second Niger bridge.
“A section of the East-West Road from Oron to Eket and the Mambilla Plateau Electricity Project are also under the NSIA funding.”
Kuti said the third alternative funding source introduced was the Tax Credit Scheme.
“The Apapa-Oworonshoki Expressway project is under the scheme, where an investor has been identified, i.e Messrs Dangote.
“This road is the beginning of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway,” he noted.
Under the scheme, an investor advances the government its tax for a specified number of years.
“This advance tax is used to fix roads. It is a win-win situation for everybody. The investor protects his investment in the chosen area, business begins to boom. A lot of people have been complaining that businesses are failing due to bad roads,” the controller said.
Meanwhile, Kuti, has said arrangements are underway to begin another phase of major repairs on the Third Mainland Bridge.
He said results of investigative tests on the bridge were ready and contractors would move to site at the completion of the traffic management architecture.
He also revealed three independent contractors are working on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway to speed up the expansion of the international highway.
Kuti said Lagos State Government, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing, were having three different interventions on the expressway being expanded from four to 10 lanes.
“The Lagos State Government is intervening on a section which is from Eric Moore Road to Okokomaiko while FERMA has taken up the maintenance of the section from Okokomaiko to Agbara.
“The Federal Ministry of Works has also picked it up from Agbara all the way down to Badagry and the Seme border.
“The regular users of that axis can testify to improvements there in the last two months because of the three independent contractors working hard to ensure the road is fixed,” he said.
On the Third Mainland bridge, he said: “Any moment from now, once I get our traffic plans approved, we may be announcing to the world again that we are now ready to fix Third Mainland Bridge, based on investigative tests we had last year.
“Meanwhile, we have already completed the resurfacing and the markings, such that you can now drive on Third Mainland Bridge smoothly. We are also going to repair some of the piles or pillars carrying the bridge; that is the next phase that we are doing. So work will soon begin on Third Mainland Bridge.’’
