By Emmanuel Nduka
The Nigerian Government has threatened to hammer sanctions on the China Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC) over the firm’s failure to provide 85 percent counterpart fund for the rail project in some parts of the country.
Decrying the slow pace of work in the Kano-Kaduna and Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail lines, Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo, warned that the firm has up till October 2022 to fulfil its own part of the agreement or face stiff sanctions.
Sambo who gave the warning on Saturday while briefing journalists in Lagos at the end of a tour of the Lekki Deep Seaport to ascertain the level of work done so far, frowned at the attitude of the Chinese firm, stating that two years after the agreement was signed, CCECC had not provided any of its 85 per cent counterpart fund for the rail project.
He maintained that the agreement stipulates that CCECC is to provide 85 per cent of the project cost while the federal government provides the remaining 15 per cent.
“How could it be said that two years after the agreement was signed, CCECC is yet to provide a dollar?” he questioned.
It would be recalled that former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, had in March accused the firm of playing politics with the Kano-Kaduna rail project, urging the contractor to provide funding for the project.
“The pace is extremely slow, the equipment are supposed to be 2,000 plus, but what they (CCECC) have brought so far is 541, they claim that 300 and something equipment are in Kaduna. I will send people to check. Even if you add that all together, you will have 800 and something equipment in place of 2,000 equipment that they are supposed to bring. That means something is wrong somewhere.
“I know they (CCECC) claim that there is no money, that we have not funded them. But what of their responsibility in the contract that they will look for the money?
“CCECC has not brought money, the Chinese are no longer giving us money for more than three to four years now. So CCECC can’t afford to delay in their responsibility to look for money for the project. That is what the Chinese must do,” Amaechi had noted.
