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Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said the federal government has released N72 billion as the full counterpart funding for the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan railway project. Amaechi made the announcement while speaking at the quarterly Presidential Business Forum hosted by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja on Monday.

“I think in the history of Nigeria this is the first time that we are releasing counterpart funding in full so that there will be no delay, since the Chinese loan appears to have been approved,” the minister said.

Amaechi, however, urged the National Assembly to quickly approve the government’s $30 billion loan request since the funds are tied to other pending projects around the country.

“The National Assembly should please approve the 30 billion dollars loan. If you don’t encourage the National Assembly to make that approval, then, the economy won’t be making the kind of progress we want the economy to make,” the minister said. “So, for me here, I will enjoin you to persuade the National Assembly to kindly make that approval because they are tied to projects.”

The federal government first awarded the Lagos-Ibadan rail project to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation in 2006 at a cost of about $1.5 billion dollars. However, the rail project – which would cover 2,733 kilometres – had stalled owing to paucity of funds.