The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that it will continue to fund railway developments in Lagos State, despite the fact that N45 billion has already been disbursed for the state’s Blue Line project.
Yusuf Philip Yila, Director, CBN Development Finance, announced this in Lagos yesterday during an inspection of the Blue Line project operated by the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA).
CBN conducted the inspection to monitor and evaluate the project’s progress, according to Yila, who was given a tour of the Marina site.
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What the CBN is saying
The Central Bank, through select banks, supplied funding under the Differentiated Cash Reserves Requirement (DCRR) intervention to ensure Lagos State had the necessary funds for the project.
Yila said, “The total amount we have made available for this Line is N60 billion. We have disbursed N45 billion. There’s another tranche of N15 billion. So, we see that the progress of the job matches the funding so far. This is just one of the projects under the DCRR intervention. As part of our response to COVID-19, we released N1 trillion.
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“We are confident, based on what has been shown, that progress has been made. Disbursement of the funding is being done in tranches. So, another tranche is due. As the central bank, we felt it is important to come and see what is on ground and the quality of work is quite impressive.
“They have shown us some of the technical details. For me, what I see is the number of jobs provided; young people working in Nigeria, welding, fabricating. There are over 500 jobs on site here, which is a good takeaway. I am happy, having met some of the people on site and across other stations.”
The Blue Line is a 27-kilometre stretch from Okokomaiko to Marina being constructed in the first phase. According to LAMATA, the vision of the state is to complete the project in the fourth quarter of 2022.
