Lagos, Japanese agency in talks over N300bn Marina-Ikoyi-Lekki monorail 

Lagos State government and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are in talks for the possible construction of a monorail line that will link Marina, Victoria Island, Oniru, Ikoyi and Lekki.

This development comes in as Lagos State raked in N101.69 billion as internally generated revenue (IGR) in the first quarter of 2016. The amount is N4.4 billion higher than the comparative period in 2015, which stood at N97.28 billion.

The monorail would likely cost the partners $1 billion (about N300bn). It is being considered to complement the transportation systems within and around the highbrow Lagos areas, currently dominated by commercial/private vehicles with a negligible percent of water transportation.

Although the state government for about eight years now had been battling to complete the Blue-line light rail (Okokomaiko to Marina) on Lagos-Badagry corridor, an official says the monorail should experience less hiccups as it is proposed to be delivered under a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangement. The state government has consistently blamed the long delays in the completion of the light rail on paucity of funds.

“A detailed feasibility study has been commissioned on the monorail project to validate the initial survey, which will eventually lead to an investment of $1 billion in the project if the results of the feasibility study are positive, among other conditions,” Akinyemi Ashade, the state commissioner for economic planning and budget, said on Monday.

According to Ashade, the monorail project is an urban mass transportation project different from the ongoing Blue-line rail project that will connect Mile 2 to CMS, and the Red line rail proposed to run from Agbado to Marina.

Ashade attributed the increase recorded in the IGR to the introduction of multiple platforms for payment of taxes and levies, which create convenience for taxpayers, saying the government estimated that would be achieved in later quarters of the year.

The commissioner gave a further breakdown of the budget performance in the first quarter: “Over the course of the first quarter of 2016, federal transfers contributed N25.64 billion (83% of the estimate for the quarter) and accounted for 25.21 percent of total revenue. Further breakdown showed that statutory allocations contributed N7.48 billion while VAT contributed N18.16 billion.”

On performance of capital expenditure for the period under review, the commissioner said in this regard, the government expended N48.88 billion on capital projects, which represented a 51 percent better performance of N15.08 billion (24%) as of the first quarter of 2015.

At the end of first quarter of 2016, the ratio of capital expenditure to recurrent expenditure closed at 50:50, better than a ratio of 21:79 recorded within the same period in 2015, but short of the ratio of 58:42 projected for 2016, he said.