FG okays $3.5bn loan for Ibadan-Kano, Oshogbo -Ekiti rail project
The Federal Government has approved an additional $3.50 billion loan for the Federal Ministry of Transport to execute the ongoing rail project in the country.
The approval was given on Wednesday during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Viall, Abuja. Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, said that he presented two memos and both of them were approved by the council, He said that the first one was an amendment to an earlier approval for an $8.7 billion rail project for Ibadan to Kano to Oshogbo, linking Minna to Abuja, Minna to Kaduna, and Kaduna to Kano.
The minister said that what the ministry sought for was the variation because the financing authority wanted to fund just $5.7 billion, adding that “We needed approval to negotiate the remainder as a commercial loan. Amaechi said that the FEC has therefore given the approval to secure the remaining $3 billion and $500 million for the construction of rail from Oshogbo to Ekiti which was not in the earlier plan.