Nigeria will sign interim payment certificates to hasten the pace of work on the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail line, the minister of transportation has said.
Rotimi Amaechi, Nigeria’s returnee minister of transportation, said this while lamenting the delay and slow pace of work on the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail project in the past few months, saying that it was largely due to funding.
The transportation minister who said this barely 48 hours after the inauguration of new cabinet during an inspection of the rail project, said the project was slowed down because of funding.
He disclosed that already the contractor had submitted various Interim Payment Certificates (IPCs) to the Ministry to process payment from the China Exim Bank but only the Minister can sign the IPCs.
According to Amaechi, ”I’ll sign IPCs on Monday when I get to the office and send it to be paid by China Exim Bank. Then on our own side, we are owing compensation payment and land acquisition. We also need approval from the cabinet on over and under land passes in Lagos which they cannot commence until they get that approval,” the minister said.
Amaechi who started the inspection from Ebute Metta Lagos to Apapa station before proceeding to Ibadan which is the final destination of the project said the project had barely progressed from where he left it on May 29 when the cabinet was dissolved.
The minister who was accompanied by Ibrahim Al-Hassan, chairman of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) and Fidet Okhiria, the managing director of Nigeria Railway Corporation, said the Federal Government was also owing compensation on land acquisition which would be processed in earnest.
As at the time of filing this report, the contractor had finished work on the double track laying from Iju in Lagos to the end of the project which is kilometer 157 in Moniya Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
Amaechi who assessed the level of work since May when the last inspection was done before the cabinet was dissolved said, “They are a bit slow and the reason is funding. There are IPCs that nobody could sign other than the minister and there was no minister at that period.
“Our target is that they should please hurry and get into seaports so that we can be carrying the goods at the seaports and eliminate Apapa gridlock,” the minister said.
