But for the Covid-19 pandemic that ravaged the world in 2020 and the EndSARS protests across Nigeria, work on the 2nd Niger Bridge would have been completed in February, 2022
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, announced this in Abuja while giving newsmen update on some key projects of the Federal Government.
Fashola said although 91%work had been done on the bridge, the sit- at- home order on Mondays on the Anambra State side is further preventing his Ministry from wrapping up the project..
‘’The sit at home being observed every Monday in Anambra State is seriously affecting progress on the project and any day we don’t work there is time lost”.
“On the 2nd Niger Bridge, we are going to shut down the power supply from one of the power plants for maintenance. We have to relocate transmission lines; we have to move people who have set up markets along the roads and so on. So these are some of the challenges we are facing and then there are compensation issues and we are working with governors, who control land in their states to help us overcome these local issues,” he said.
The Minister listed the 2nd Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan and the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria expressways as the main projects being executed through the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF).
“The Lagos-Ibadan expressway will be delivered this year, subject to how we navigate the pricing issues. Second Niger Bridge also this year, while the main carriageway of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano expressway is scheduled for completion by the second quarter of 2023 before the president leaves office at the end of his tenure.”
He said the Abuja to Kano road has ancillary works that cannot be finished next year.
“There is ancillary work that cannot be finished next year; the service lanes and truck parks, toll plazas but that will continue because the funding is properly structured and the NSI is trying to mobilize some private capital now into the project,” he said.
Fashola said the projects were important because of their economic benefits to the people.
“Collectively, the three projects have been able to create more than 5,000 direct jobs and 13,998 indirect jobs. This is a major link chain of the economic agenda of this country because right now people are getting something to do. If you analyze the GDP results sectorally, you will see that mining is thriving, you will see that the construction sector is booming, you will see petroleum products also booming.
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“And then you see the food vendors also making money because at each construction site, people must eat twice a day. A plate of food was N250 before the cost of living started going up.
“This is a major economic driver. Each of these projects has a bank guarantee for the money they get and such guarantees are not given for free. The contracts also have a 7.5 percent Value Added Tax, which when collected, 85 percent of it goes to the St
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