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Buhari lists uncompleted projects among landmark infrastructure transformational investments
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday listed some inherited and yet uncompleted projects among the Federal Government’s landmark transformational investments in Infrastructure in the country of his administration.
President Buhari presenting the N20.51 trillion budget proposal for 2023 to the National Assembly on Friday, stated that his administration in 2021 established the Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCorp) with seed capital of N1 trillion from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). According to him, the administration leveraged on finance through the NSIA into the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) to facilitate the completion of the Second Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Abuja-Kano Highway.
Meanwhile, the Second Niger Bridge and the Lagos-Ibadan expressway are yet to be completed seven and a half years after.
The President emphasized that the road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme, pursuant to Executive Order 7 of 2019, incentivised responsible companies to invest billions of naira in constructing over 1,500km critical roads in key economic corridors.
President Buhari noted that under the scheme, the Dangote Group substantially completed the reconstruction of 34km Apapa-Oworonshoki-Ojota Expressway and the 43km Obajana-Kabba road.
The President said that the Nigeria LNG Limited is on track to complete the 38km Bodo-Bonny Road and Bridges Project by the end of 2023.
He stated that under the Sukuk Bonds scheme since 2017, over N600 billion had been raised and invested in 941km for over 40 critical road projects nationwide, adding that this complemented the Ministry of Works and Housing’s Highway Development and Management Initiative and other interventions.
President Buhari declared that his administration had invested significantly to restore the national railways. He noted that his administration completed and commissioned the 156km Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail (and its 8.72km extension to Lagos Port); the 186km Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge Rail and 327km Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail.
According to him, “these completed projects complement our ongoing investments in light rail, narrow and standard gauge rail, ancillary facilities yards, wagon assembly plants.
“Others are E-Ticketing infrastructure as well as the training and development of our rail engineers and other workers.”
The president further said that the federal government had completed new Airport Terminals at Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt, and reconstructed the Abuja Airport runway in its first overhaul since its construction in the early 1980s.
“Other investments in airports safety facilities, aeronautical meteorological services delivery complements ongoing development of seaports and ancillary infrastructure,” he said.
The President asserted that such infrastructure are at the Lekki Deep Sea Port, Bonny Deep Sea Port, Onitsha River Port, as well as the Kaduna, Kano and Katsina Inland Dry Ports to create a truly multimodal transport system.
Despite the frequent collapse of the National Grid, President Buhari said that his administration has transformed Nigeria’s challenging power sector, through interventions such as the Siemens Power Program, with the German government under which over 2 billion dollars would be invested in the transmission grid.
President Buhari had declared: “We have leveraged over billions of U.S. dollars in concessional and other funds from our partners at the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, African Development Bank, JICA as well as through the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“They were achieved, working with the Finance Ministry, to support the power sector reforms.
“The Central Bank has also been impactful in its interventions to roll out over a million meters to on-grid consumers, creating much needed jobs in assembly and installation.
“Our financing interventions have recently been complemented with the takeover of four electricity distribution companies and the constitution of the Board of the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company.
“On the generation side, we have made significant investments in and incremental 4,000MW of power generating assets, including Zungeru Hydro, Kashimbila Hydro, Afam III Fast Power, Kudenda Kaduna Power Plant, the Okpai Phase 2 Plant, the Dangote Refinery Power Plant, and others.
“Our generation efforts are making the transition from a reliance on oil and diesel, to gas as a transitional fuel, as well as environmentally friendly solar and hydro sources.”
After over seven months of ASUU strike, President Buhari told the federal lawmakers that his administration, under Energising Education Programme, commissioned solar and gas power solutions at Federal Universities and Teaching Hospitals at Kano, Ebonyi, Bauchi and Delta states.