The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, says the federal government will toll the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Abuja-Kano road, and the second Niger Bridge to repay loans used to fund the project.
Speaking at an event in Lagos on Wednesday, December 15, Emefiele said that the three projects are funded by the Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCo).
According to TheCable, he said, “The Federal Government approached us to provide some kind of bridge funding; the bridge funding is almost about N170 billion, and we provided it so that those projects can move on with funding.
The entire scope of those three projects, I am told is slightly above N1 trillion, but the numbers are being worked on. And I believe by the time the asset managers effectively come on board, the details of those projects and the remaining aspects of those funding would be coming in through debt and that is where the asset managers would come in with the entire scope and then we would know the detailed cost of those three projects.
All of the roads will be tolled. And we know that in many other countries in the world, roads are tolled because those projects are commercially viable.
They can be refunded with tolls so that maintenance can be done on a regular basis, and people will pay for it and enjoy good roads, and enjoy good facilities because that is the only way we can fund the infrastructure of this country, which is the large amount of money that is needed.”
