OpeOluwani Akintayo
18 September 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, Limited will provide 50 percent funding for the construction of the Bonny Island Bodo road.
According to a press release by the company, the contract was signed with the federal government and Julius Berger, to give 50 percent amounting to N60.3 billion ($197Million) of a project to cost a total of N120.6 billion ($394 million).
Already the agreement has been signed with NLNG’s managing director, Tony Attah, the minister of works, power and housing, Babatunde Fashola, and Julius Berger’s managing director, Wolfgang Goesh.
“The 34 kilometre road will help address the twin challenges of poverty and unemployment as well as improve the lives of people of the region, especially those from Bonny, Ogoni, Okrika, Eleme, Andoni, and other communities in the Niger Delta”, the NLNG said.
The intended road project will include at least four bridges built over rivers to open up inaccessible paths.
“The federal government’s efforts to build the road had been hampered for decades, largely by funding and contractor issues, causing NLNG to intervene especially because of the criticality of the road to residents of Bonny Island, who daily brave the vagaries of the sea to travel to the mainland, ” the NLNG statement said.
“This for Nigeria LNG is part of our effort to contribute to the advancement of the Niger Delta. More importantly for us as a company, our contribution to the project will lead to the accomplishment of the dream of connecting Bonny Island to the rest of Rivers State by road and not only by sea,” Attah said.