The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has confirmed that the Federal Government of Nigeria has borrowed about $2.6billion from China Exim Bank for the construction of a railway linking Lagos to Ibadan.
Amaechi made this revelation during an interview with Channels TV on Monday night.
“If you look at the whole total cost, it will be $2.5 to $2.6 billion that we have borrowed from China Exim Bank,” he said.
He further explained that the Federal Government’s decision to extend the rail line to the nation’s seaports is for the economic benefit associated with it.
“But at the end of the day, the project is costing about $2 billion. The government is coughing out more than just $200 million. We are bringing out about $700 million because we have to end to the seaport in Apapa which was not part of the original design.
“So we had to take about 45kilometres rail from Ebute-Metta into Apapa seaport. Everything together is about $2 billion. There is an additional one they are going to bring to connect Tincan Island Seaport to Apapa, that will be some extra cost which we have to borrow from them.
“They also lent us about $1.4 billion for the Lagos-Ibadan while the Federal Government had to cough out about $200 million to make it $1.6 billion,” he added.
