The Federal Government of Nigeria has released N72 billion to fund the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan rail line, a sum required to access a loan from the Chinese government for the project to kick off.

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, disclosed this on Monday during the Quarterly Business Forum which held at the Banquet hall of the Presidential villa Abuja.

Mr Amaechi said the N72 billion is the full sum required as counterpart funding to avoid delaying the project. “As for the construction of Lagos-Ibadan Railway, the Minister of Finance has been kind enough to release the counterpart funding in full,” he said.

He also stated that the nature of the release is the first in the history of Nigeria adding that the Chinese authorities already approved the loan and therefore urged the National Assembly to urgently pass the $30 billion loan request sent by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said “The only thing we need to do, I thank God there is somebody from the National Assembly here, is to plead with the National Assembly that the funds have been approved, then the National Assembly should please approve the $30bn loan.

“If you don’t encourage the National Assembly to make that approval, then, the economy won’t be making the kind of progress we want the economy to make.

“So, for me here, I will join to persuade the National Assembly to kindly make that approval because they are tied to projects.”