The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will now be ready in the first quarter of 2022, Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, said on Thursday.
During an appearance on TV, Fashola attributed the delay on the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway to the coronavirus pandemic which he says slowed down construction activities and affected government revenue.
Awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria and Reynolds Construction Company Limited (RCC), the road project cost a sum of 167 billion naira and was earlier scheduled to be finished in 2021. The project is part of projects funded under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund.
Other projects under the fund include the Second Niger Bridge and the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway.
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Fashola confirmed all three projects are expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2022.
“As I speak to you now, we have lost essentially the prime of our working period which is the dry season in the COVID period,” he said. “We have to regain and recover all of that.
“We have also lost some of our expected revenue plans. At the time COVID hit Nigeria, we were doing 2.59 percent growth rate. Now we are heading for a recession globally and Nigeria will not be insulated from that.
“We are working on plans to bring the economy back on track.”
He added that work will resume once the federal government started to lift restrictions.
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