The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has disclosed that President Bola Ahmed has approved funding for the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano, Lagos-Ibadan highway and the second Niger bridge two bypass projects.
This development, Umahi said would remove the financial bottlenecks on the three projects.
He said this during the inspection of the Lafia Bypass Road and Dualisation of the 9th Mile (Enugu)-Otukpo-Makurdi Road Project in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
The 260 kilometres project is located in the Southeast of Nigeria, crossing Federal Capital Territory, Nasarawa, Benue Logo, and Enugu states.
It is jointly funded by the Export-Import Bank of Nigeria 85 percent and 15 percent by the Federal Government. The project is expected to be delivered in 48 months and handled by China Harbour Nigeria Limited.
The minister, who had earlier inspected the Mararaba-Keffi reconstruction and expansion project, thanked the Benue State Governor, Revd. Father Hyacinth Alia, and his Enugu State Counterpart Mr. Peter Mbah for setting up committees to provide security on the sites of the project.
He said, “From the beginning of the road to here, it must be done on concrete. So anywhere we have bad terrain we will scope it for concrete. We will put the middle of the divide of the two carriageways in the middle of the existing route.
The project is financed by China Exim Bank, so the money is there and the project is in dollars, so it will not vary that much.
On his part, Governor Alia, who accompanied the minister to the project site, commended the president for his good heart toward the common masses.
He said: “We are very grateful to God for giving us this opportunity we have always prayed for a new Benue of our dream where anything we touch gets a magnet, efficiency, effectiveness, and done.
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