Second Niger Bridge ready, to be inaugurated before Christmas, says Fashola

The construction of the Second Niger Bridge is complete and it will be inaugurated before Christmas, Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said.

He said this at the unveiling of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s scorecard series (2015-2023) on Wednesday in Abuja.

The minister said, “Second Niger Bridge is completed. What is remaining is a 4km interchange road at the Asaba end and 2km out of a 7km link road at the Onitsha end.

“The first thing we did when we came into power was we expanded our budget on road infrastructure, sought alternative sources of funding through SUKUK, Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme.”

Giving the achievements of his ministry, Fashola said 12 road projects covering about 896km had been completed, commissioned and handed over to their communities.

He also said the government was executing 83 road rehabilitation projects in federal tertiary institutions across the country with 66 projects completed and 46 commissioned.

“Some of the Super Eagles that were promised houses in 1994 have been allocated their houses. After 28 years, President Muhammmadu Buhari approved it and fulfilled the pledge,” he said.

Fashola also disclosed that the ministry facilitated projects such as the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, Sukuk Fund, Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme, Multi-lateral loans/grants and collaboration with other government agencies including the North-East Development Commission.

He said the PIDF assisted in the construction of the rehabilitation, construction and  expansion  of Lagos-Sagamu-Ibadan Dual Carriageway Section I: (Lagos-Sagamu) in Lagos State; rehabilitation, construction and expansion of Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan Dual Carriageway Section II: (Sagamu-Ibadan) in Oyo State, construction of main works including associated infrastructure for the 2nd Niger Bridge and the rehabilitation of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway, Sections I, II & III.

In the housing sector, Fashola said the ministry was undertaking at least 6,022 housing units nationwide and had completed 2,864 units in 35 states and the FCT; and created 29,030 direct and 57,874 indirect jobs in the process.

The minister said he had signed at least 6,337 certificates of occupancy to Nigerians who were granted federal lands and property but had not been issued with their titles for over three decades.

In that same area, the minister announced that a total of 2,731 allottees of landed property had been grated consent to transact business with their property attracting the sum of N2,210,577,837.95 to the federal purse