Nigeria to toll Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, 2nd Niger Bridge, others – Emefiele

The Nigeria government plans to toll the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the ongoing 2nd Niger Bridge, and other roads, to repay loans used to build them, according to Godwin Emefiele.

“All of the roads will be tolled. And we know that in many other countries in the world, roads are tolled because those projects are commercially viable,” Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Wednesday at the closing ceremony of the 12th Banker’s Committee retreat in Lagos.

“They (loan) can be refunded with tolls so that maintenance can be done on a regular basis, and people will pay for it and enjoy good roads, and enjoy good facilities because that is the only way we can fund the infrastructure of this country, which is the large amount of money that is needed.”

Emefiele said the toll from the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Abuja-Kano road, and the second Niger Bridge will be used to repay loans used to fund the project.

The apex bank governor said that the three projects are funded by the Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCo).

Emefiele said that N1 trillion of the N15 trillion equity for InfraCo was being contributed by the CBN, African Finance Corporation, and Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, adding that the remaining N14 trillion would be accessed from the debt market.

He said the Federal Government had approached CBN to provide some kind of bridge funding which is almost about N170 billion which was provided for those projects to move on with funding.

“The entire scope of those three projects, I am told is slightly above N1 trillion, but the numbers are being worked on,” Emefiele said.

“And I believe by the time the asset managers effectively come on board, the details of those projects and the remaining aspects of those funding would be coming in through debt and that is where the asset managers would come in with the entire scope and then we would know the detailed cost of those three projects.”

The CBN governor said he is “reasonably optimistic that more than 50 percent or two-thirds of this money is going to be raised locally.

“Before we begin to think about accessing international finance, we would try as much as possible to limit debt for foreign currencies, particularly knowing that some of these projects and revenues are going to be generated with local currency.

“Where foreign currencies are needed, we will also take those and then be able to use them.”