The Federal Government has said that it had paid only $218 million of the $1.2 billion needed to fund the Kano-Kaduna rail project.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on Friday in Abuja.
He said, “we believe that by the time we get the loan we must have funded up to 600million dollars.
“So, that should be able to take the project nearly halfway before the fund will come because if we continue to wait for the loan whether, from China or Europe, we may likely not complete it before we go.”
Amaechi also disclosed that the rail would be launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in two weeks for work to commence.
He noted that the project was delayed due to the loan from China that was yet to be delivered.
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The minister said, “In the next two weeks, we should be launching and commencing immediately the construction of Kano-Kaduna rail project.
“The president will be launching it and then we will commence construction immediately.
“The reason why we are commencing construction immediately is that all the necessary contracts have been awarded.
“We have been waiting for the loan for too long from China and the money has not come.
“So, we decided to fund it from the budget. We already paid 218million dollars to them and we are about to pay another 100million dollars to make it about 318million dollars.
“Kano-Kaduna is about 1.2billion dollars – the moment you pay about 318million dollars, you must have paid one-third of the project.”
