Follow Us on Google
From John Adams, Minna
Work on the 79 kilometers Minna-Bida highway which contract was awarded in February 2020 by the Niger State Government has suffered a major set back as the state government said it could not raise the N23 billion counterparts funding.
The contract for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the road was awarded to Messer Dantata Sowoe Nigeria Limited at the cost of N23.4 billion with a completion of 18 months.
The state had approached the Islamic Development Bank for a loan of $181 million to enable it finance the project with the state government expected to pay about N23 billion as it counterparts funding to enable it access the loan.
However, two years after Governor Abubakar Sani Bello flagged off the construction of the road at a well-attended ceremony, only about five per cent of the work has been done.
The slow pace of work on the project, it has been gathered, is due to the the inability of the state government to fulfilled her own part of the agreement with the payment of the counterparts funding, hence the non-release of the fund by the Islamic Development Bank.
Worried by this development, and the outcry from the public over the deplorable condition of the road and attendant hardship being experienced by motorists, the state government has approached the Federal Government to come to the rescue of the state government with the payment of the N23 billion counterparts funding to enable the project see the light of the day.
The state governor, in a letter to Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Work and Housing dated November 12, 2021, informed the minister that sourcing the N23 billion counterparts funding has been the constrain of the state government.
According to the governor, the state has not only gotten the approval of the bank for the loan, it is ready to disburse the fund subject to making available the counterparts fund.
“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,” the letter read.
“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.”
In addition to this, the governor equally requested for a letter from the Minister, confirming the ministry’s acceptance of the state government request to enable her tender same to the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) as evidence of the source of counterparts funding.
The governor in the letter is also requesting the Federal Ministry of Work to “confirm that Dantata and Sawoe is the contractor working on Bida-Minna road and also on site.”
The governor had in every forum maintained that the Minna-Bida road projects were not part of the eight roads in the state recently approved by the federal government for reconstruction and rehabilitation, insisting that the state government will finance the road through the expected loan Islamic Development Bank.
While the state government await response from the federal government on it request, the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructural development, Mallam Mamman Musa, during his tours of roads projects in state expressed displeasure over the slow pace of work by the contractor handling the road project.
According to him, “the pace at which this road is constructed cannot longer be tolerated, I am not satisfied with the progress.”
