The Federal Government on Thursday confirmed that approval to the tune of $195 million had been granted for execution of projects critical to ensuring security of the nation’s waterways and by so doing, boost the performance of the maritime sector.
The Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who gave this hint in Abuja at a press briefing to update journalists on the activities of his Ministry, said that the amount was approved as payment to an Israeli company that would train the country’s waterways security personnel.
This is even as he also shed light on the ongoing Ibadan to Kano corridor, adding that the ministry is also discussing with some U.S companies to fund the Lagos to Calabar rail corridor as well as a Chinese company to fund the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri corridor.
The minister explained these key infrastructure projects, amongst other road projects, were crucial to growing the the nation’s economy sustainably.
He said: “We are currently in negotiation with the China Export Import Bank to get nearly about six billion dollars to do from Ibadan to Kano.
“It is a difficult decision because the money required is about 8 billion dollars to do the double track but the Chinese are insisting that they cannot fund double track so they are asking us to do a single track.
“They are asking us to do a single track and they want it at Minna so that instead of going from Minna to Kaduna, we should go from Minna to Abuja and then join it from Abuja to Kaduna.
“But there are those who argue that we should not accept that, rather we should tell those (Chinese) to fund it in segments. This, however, does not make economic sense.
“We are compelled to adjust just to have movement of goods, personnel and services from Lagos to Kano.What makes economic sense is the ability to get the track to a seaport so that we can move goods. What makes economic sense to rail services is the movement of goods”, Amaechi stressed.
