Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, has begun the mobilisation of Contractors to the project site to kick-start the construction of the Second Niger Bridge.
The cheering news was broken on Wednesday, in Abuja, by the Managing Director of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, Uche Orji.
At a Press Conference in Abuja, Orji said that the completion of the multi-billion naira Second Niger Bridge linking Asaba in Delta State and Onitsha, was underway.
According to Orji: “The Second Niger Bridge, I would say, went through a phase where there was a pause, as we went through a kind of transition from one government to another. We have reconciled most of the issues and we are working to get back on course with funding. I think the Contractors have been mobilized once again and so they will get back to work.
“There is a new financing strategy which is being discussed, which we are driving along with the Federal Ministry of Works. Once that is agreed, you will see a significant progress on that bridge in the next couple of years.
“We did lose time while we were trying to complete the transaction process, and there are people who are working on this in the Ministry. There was a bit of period of time loss, but we are back on track. “But the financing structure is changing, and once this is approved, we will move faster”, Orji said.
Also, the Federal Executive Council, FEC, approved $38 million for the construction of the Nigeria-Cameroun border link bridge at Ekot-Ifiom, in Cross River State. The consultancy services will cost additional $1.9 million.
The project, which is supervised by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, will be supported by the African Development Bank and is expected to improve relationship between Cameroun and Nigeria, especially in view of the International Court of Justice judgement over the Bakassi Peninsula.
The Minister in charge, Babatunde Fashola, told Journalists that it is part of the link road to Enugu-Abakiliki Highway, which is already being completed, and also part of the larger Lagos/Mombasa superhighway.
He further explained that: “the Cameroun Bridge is $38 million for the construction contract, and $1.9 million for consultancy and supervision of the bridge under the African Development Bank procurement guidelines.”
Fashola, said that another approval by FEC, was the resuscitation and completion at a cost of N32 billion, of the Kaduna Eastern Bypass Highway, which was started in 2002, and initially planned to have been completed in three years.
