The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is looking at injecting a second tranche of N60 billion funding in the blue rail line project under construction by the Lagos State government.
This was made known by the CBN director development finance department, Yusuf Philip Yila, during an inspection of the marina blue, red and green lines interchange terminal. According to him, a first tranche of the N60 billion has been disbursed through the three participating financial institutions.
The apex bank noted that through Access Bank, Sterling and Fidelity, they have disbursed N45 billion to fund Lagos Blue line which is a 13.5-kilometer railway situated at the business district of Lagos, and would be easily connected to waterways, bus stations in critical parts of Lagos which normally are high traffic zones.
On the funding, he noted that they had disbursed N45 billion and would soon disburse N15 billion soon. “Another tranche is due and as a central bank we thought it was important that we come and see what is on ground, the quality of work is quite impressive. The total amount that we have made available for this line is N60 billion.
There’s another tranche of 15 billion due and we can see the progress. The progress I see matches the disbursements that have been made so far. He further added: “Infrastructure is a major contributor to economic growth, with the right infrastructure growth is certain and we are funding not only the blue line, but we’re also providing some funding for the red line and the five other lines that they plan to embark on. This will significantly contribute to ease of business, ease of moving people around and more confidence in the economy.” (Leadership)