From John Adams Minna
Work on the 79 kilometres Minna-Bida highway which contract was awarded in February 2020 by the Niger State has suffered a major set back as the government said it could not raise the N23 billion counterpart fund to execute the project.
The contract for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the road was awarded to Messers Dantata Sowoe Nigeria Limited at the cost of N23.4 billion with a completion date 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 its counterpart fund to enable it access the loan.
However, two years after, when Governor Abubakar 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 inability of the state government to fulfilled its part of the agreement of paying the counterpart fund, hence the non-release of funds by the Islamic bank.
Worried by the development, and outcry from the public over the deplorable condition of the road and attendant hardship experienced by motorists, the state government has approached the Federal Government to come to its rescue with the payment of the N23 billion counterpart fund to enable the project make progress.
The governor, in a letter to Minister of Work and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in November 2021, told the minister that sourcing the N23 billion has been the constrain of the state.
“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 counterpart fund 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 governor said in the letter.