The Federal Government of Nigeria is increasing its initial $500 million loan application from the Chinese government to $774 million to complete the East-West road in Niger Delta, according to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Uguru Usani (photo).

“No administration, to the best of my knowledge, within a democratic setting, has been more committed than this present government. And demonstration in this is the action of this administration to go ahead and seek extra budgetary special loan credit from China to the tune of $500m. Now, we are making a fresh application to increase that to $774 million to be able to tackle an aspect of that road,” he said.

Usani explained that a N8bn ($24.8m) counterpart fund has been proposed by the Budget Ministry for the credit facility this year.

Let’s recall that the East-West road construction has been ongoing for eleven years now. Speaking to Vanguard in January, The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Williams Alo, explained that the project could not be completed because the ministry was unable to pay contractors an outstanding debt N14 billion ($43million). “The recession in the country made it almost impossible to pay contractors as only Setraco Construction Company got about N3 billion out of the N17 billion required for the completion of section 2 of the road. The releases in 2016 were poor and this made it difficult to carry out work in section 2 of the East West Road,” he explained.

Anita Fatunji