Nigeria Content Online

Bi-Courtney
Highways Services Limited, the concessionaire of the Lagos-Ibadan
expressway, has said it does not have financial constraints concerning
the road construction.

Wale Babalakin, the Bi-Courtney Group chairman, added that the financial hurdle has been conquered.

Mr. Babalakin spoke
at a press conference and site visit yesterday at the Ojota end of the
expressway. “Work commenced on that road on (last) Friday. Work
commenced with the phenomenal movement of equipment. We are getting
other people involved, especially before the flag off,” he said.

He added that the
company will raise all the required funding, largely through equity and
long term loans. He drew inference from the proposed national budget of
N4.5 trillion for next year, declaring that, “the value of outstanding
work going on in Nigeria today, in the road industry, from what I
gathered, is over N1 trillion. The budget for next year, for road, is
N117 billion.”

“What this means is
that no road will have more than 10 percent of the cost of doing it
next year, which means assuming there is no escalation, it would take
another 10 years to build an average federal road. This is why we can
then understand why it took over 10 years to do Ibadan to Oyo; why it
will take over 10 years to do Ogbomosho to Ilorin, the Abuja to Okene
road, and so on. It will take over 10 years to do any major road in
Nigeria,” he said.

“This is why the
only way out is to reconstruct the road on concession. It is not
whether you like it or not, it is just the logical way out. We have to
get the private sector actively involved,” he added.

The concession is a
Public-Private Partnership project between the federal ministry of
works and Bi-Courtney, under the Design-Build-Operate-Transfer scheme,
with no monetary costs to the government.

Cost still unknown

“We got the letter
of intent, May 27, 2007. After that, it took two years to get a
concession signed. As we speak, we don’t have the right of way, it is
yet to be cleared and handed over to us. However, we have decided that
despite the constraints, we will start,” Mr. Babalakin said.

He added that
modern expressway services and facilities will be introduced, such as
dawn lighting, improved and new interchanges, a new drainage system,
recesses service areas, lay-by emergency parking areas, footbridges in
heavy pedestrian areas, weighbridges, electronic traffic control,
obligatory or informative signs, trailer parks, motels, and gas
supplies, among others. Road users will subsequently pay tolls on the
road, which will be operated and maintained by the company for 25
years, the duration of the concession. The number of toll gates is not
yet determined, though.

The firm said the
project would be in phases, with the first phase consisting of three
lanes from Lagos to Ibadan. The final phase would have four lanes on
each carriageway from Shagamu to Ibadan, but all these are subject to
traffic study.

Mr. Babalakin, however, declined to disclose the exact amount the
contract is worth currently, after the designs amendment, saying, “An
agent does not reveal figures. The federal government will let us know
the figures in due time.”