FG needs long-term loan to complete Lagos-Calabar coastal road, others —Umahi

THE Minister of Works, Engineer David Umahi, has said the Federal Government would require long-term loan to complete the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway and other legacy projects.

The minister, while disclosing this to journalists at the weekend during the inspection tour of Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project in Lagos, said that Nigerians must encourage President Bola Tinubu, to get loans for the completion of ongoing infrastructure project.

According to him, there was no way the Federal Government could achieve the completion of ongoing infrastructure projects with budgetary appropriation, hence the need for loan.

He said: ”When you look at the magnitude of projects inherited by the president in 2024, in addition to the ones he initiated, there is no way we can do it through budget’s appropriation. We are thinking that, you know, we must encourage the president to get loan.

“All the nations of the world use loan to invest in infrastructure for return on investment. And don’t forget that all these legacy projects, and of course, the major economic corridor that Mr President is doing, we are going to toll it.   “We acquired land by the side of the corridor for infrastructure development, and that is going to enhance return on investment.

“There is no other way to do them than to get long-term loan to get the projects completed and toll them.

“The projects will enhance economic activities, travel time at night, and then, of course, secure the lives and property of the people. So, that is the major thing that we have to encourage Mr President to do,” the minister said.

Commenting on the progress and quality of work being done on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project, the minister described it as a “signature of excellence and innovation on road infrastructure development by the Renewed Hope administration of President Bola Tinubu.

“We’re going to plant trees. And of course, we are going to also have some lay-bay. We can decide every five kilometres we have a lay bay where we connect all our CCTV cameras. And then we have vehicles and the security within the cabin there so that the response time will be like 10 minutes. I’m sure that you’ve witnessed what we did at Third Mainland Bridge. That’s what we intend to replicate in all our highways.

“And so the entire stretch of 750 kilometres to Calabar will be under CCTV, powered by solar. Every five kilometres or 10 or 15, as we may agree, we will have portal cabin where we have security posts, no blocking of the roads, we have a viewing centre, and then you view the entire stretch left and right. We will agree on the number of kilometres, depending on the capacity of the cameras,” he said.

READ ALSO: FG to install CCTV on Lagos-Calabar coastal highway