By Egena Sunday Ode
The Federal Government on Wednesday said that the promise to complete the narrow guage Eastern railway corridor before the end of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is no longer feasible.
The Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, stated this while fielding questions at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Recall that President Buhari had two years ago performed the groundbreaking of the $1.96 billion railine project saying that it would stimulate economic activities in 14 states it covers.
Then Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, had said that the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri line would be delivered before the end of the tenure of the present administration.
But speaking on the project during the post-FEC briefing, Sambo said financing the project has become an issue.
He said the Federal Government had not been able to obtain the foreign counterpart funding embedded in the project, making it impossible to fund it as envisaged.
His words: The question relating to the promise to deliver the Eastern line narrow gauge before the end of this administration. Now, the Eastern line is the line from Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, it has been segmented in such a way that the first part of the works covers from Port Harcourt to Enugu.
“Now, the truth of the matter is that if there was a promise to deliver this line before the end of this administration, this promise is no longer feasible because, when the contract was approved, it was approved on the premise that 85 percent will be funded through foreign loan, while 15 percent will be the counterpart funding from the national budget.
“Since that approval, we have not been able to obtain that 85 percent foreign loans for this project. We have been funding it through the national budget on the bases of the 15 percent counterpart funding of the federal government. And therefore, funding has been a major challenge for this project.”
