We’ll toll roads to repay loans acquired constructing them—Emefiele

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has said that some roads in the country will be tolled to repay the loan used in constructing them.

Emefiele who said this while responding to questions after a two-day retreat of the Bankers’ Committee in Lagos on Wednesday December 15, added that roads getting tolled will also aid in its maintenance.

He said;

“Most of those roads will be tolled and we know that in many other countries in the world, roads are tolled because those projects are commercially viable.

“They can be refunded with tolls so that maintenance can be done on a regular basis, and people will pay for it and enjoy good roads, and enjoy good facilities because that is the only way we can fund the infrastructure of this country, which is the large amount of money that is needed.”

Also revealing that there are lots of idle funds that can be channelled, if packaged the way the Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria Limited has been set up to give comfort to the local investors to put their funds in the project, he added that most of the funds would be in naira because the banks and pension fund administrators have large pool of funds, and most of the funds can be raised locally before the country begins to think of accessing international finance.