Nigeria, one of the biggest countries in Africa, has a lot of long-running million-dollar projects with barely any impact on its citizens while accruing debts. Some of these projects, when they are eventually completed, are clearly overpriced.
Here are five examples of such projects along with the millions they have gulped:
National Library
Cost: N18 billion
Year: 2006
Current status: unfinished
Situated on Plot 35 in the Central Business District, Abuja, the National Library of Nigeria headquarters building has become a dream deferred.
The contract for the building was awarded in 2006 to Messes Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) at the cost of N8.590bn, but construction was stalled because of the government’s inability to fund the contract. In 2008, the contractor demanded an upward review of the amount.
The Ministry of Education later reviewed the design of the property, leading to the upward review of the project to N18bn in 2009 following approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), with a completion period of 21 months effective from July, 2010.
Apo-Karshi Road
Cost: N6.4 billion
Year: 2011
Current status: Unfinished
The Apo-Karshi stretch road was first awarded at the cost of N6.4 billion to an indigenous construction firm (Kakarta Engineering Limited).
The road project, according to the FCT administration, was to ease the perennial gridlock being experienced by motorists on the AYA-Nyanya-Mararaba-Keffi road.
However, the construction of the road later stopped after the 2015 general election, a situation, which resulted in a public outcry, especially among motorists/civil servants as traffic along the Nyanya-Mararaba-Keffi road worsens and almost becomes a nightmare.
On assumption of office as FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello, on May 2015, ordered the contractor back to the site to continue with the construction of the Apo-Karshi road project, but since then, the completion of the road project has continued to witness a slow pace.
After the Federal Executive Council meeting on February 16, 2021, the minister had, while addressing newsmen, pledged that the Apo- Karshi road would be completed before the rainy season sets in.
Bello had attributed the delay in completion of the road project to the error of design whereby a huge rock outcrops on the alignment of the road.
Millennium Tower
Cost: N69.3billion
Year: 2005
Current status: unfinished
The Millennium Tower, an extensive project, was initiated in 2005 by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. The Tower was designed to be the tallest tower in Abuja at 170 metres (560ft) with an estimated cost of N69.3bn.
Findings by BusinessDay gathered that for several years, the government did not make budgetary provision for the complex, thereby forcing Salini Nigeria Limited, the Italian firm handling the construction, to suspend work after over N35.7bn had gone into it.
Analysts say with the current inflation in the prices of building materials, an additional N56bn would be needed to complete the project.
Unfinished Gas projects
Cost: $9.8 (OK LNG)
Year: 2005 (OK LNG)
Current status: Unfinished (OK LNG)
Two major gas projects, Olokola Liquefied Natural Gas (OK LNG) project and West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), capable of making gas a critical catalyst in Nigeria’s economy are currently rioting away with a loss of about N64.96 billion in 2020 despite processing zero gas.
The OK LNG project (construction and operation of a Four Train LNG plant) and the WAGP (provision of gas transportation) were expected to spur domestic gas demand, generate electricity and strengthen Nigeria’s revenue base.
Read also: Gas rich Nigeria can’t find enough for its power plants
Had the two projects been allowed to come on stream, some stakeholders say it would definitely have served as a major contributor to Nigeria’s economic development and put Nigeria at the forefront of Africa’s gas production.
Other factors leading up to the stalled state of the OK LNG project could be linked to the various controversies around it during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime.
The former president was accused of sowing the seeds of discomfort with the OK LNG project when he also initiated the project in 2005 barely one year from the conception of the Brass project.
However, none of the two LNG projects has progressed beyond the drawing board despite billions of dollars already expended on them. The projects have been stalled by lack of Final Investment Decision (FID) as well as delays caused by unnecessary bickering, lack of political will, despite the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
N7bn Ministry of Agric headquarters
Cost: N7.075 billion
Year: 2019
Current status: Unfinished
The former minister of agriculture and rural development, Audu Ogbeh’s request to buy a 10-storey property on Plot 1062, Herbert Macaulay Way, Central Business District in Abuja, from Messrs Efab Properties Limited at the cost of N7.075bn, was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
This building was to serve as the corporate headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture because for over 20 years the ministry operated from a single three-floor complex within the premises of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and spent over N400m annually in rents for some of its departments.
However, since acquiring the building years ago, the building has been abandoned, with nothing done to uplift the structure for administrative use. It was discovered that the building is gradually becoming dilapidated, with the roof already falling off.
