Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission,ICRC yesterday, said it is not aware that the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has been concessioned.

It assured Nigerians that to the best of its knowledge, there has been no new concession granted  as  required  by law and the National Policy on Public Private Partnership on Lagos Ibadan expressway.

Ongoing construction on Lagos-Ibadan-Expressway

In a release signed by Ms Debora Okafor, Acting Head of Communication of the agency said “It will be recalled that after the termination of the concession granted to Bi-Courtney  Highway  Services  Limited,  the Federal Government decided to reconstruct  the  Lagos-Ibadan  expressway  as  a  traditional  procurement through  Engineering,  Procurement  and  Construction  (EPC).”

The statement further said: “However, the government could  not  wholly  finance the project and had secured private financing from a consortium of banks to ensure the speedy completion of the road.  Government  is  bound  to  repay  the financing arrangement (such as interest  payments, loan repayment, fees, charges and associated returns on equity  investment)  either  through  the  annual  budgetary system or from
revenues  accruable  to Government if the operations and maintenance of the
road is granted as a concession to a private party.

“If  and  when  the  Federal Government decides to grant concession over the operations  and  maintenance  aspect  of  the  project,  the  ICRC,  as the regulatory  agency,  will  ensure  that the project passes through a normal competitive  process  as  provided  for under the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (Establishment, Etc) Act, 2005 Act, (the Act) and the National PPP Policy on Public Private Partnership.

“The ICRC wishes to state further that: Any PPP structuring over the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway can only take place after the ongoing reconstruction is completed and handed over to the Federal Government; the  Federal  Ministry  of Works would then commence the process of procurement  of  a  competent  project  proponent  to  handle  the Tolling, Operations  and  Maintenance  of  the  road  in compliance with the Act and Policy,  which  requires that such a process must be done competitively and transparently; Any new concession over the road must, in due course, be certified by ICRC to have complied with the Act and Policy; based on ICRC’s certification, the concession must then be approved by the Federal Executive Council as required under Section 2. 2 of the Act; The Federal Executive Council is the only approving authority for PPP over Federal Government Infrastructure”.

She said that Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited had instituted an action at the Federal High Court challenging the Federal Government’s termination of the concession granted the company  over the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Arising from this case, the court  had,  on  May  19,  2015,  issued  an  order restraining the Federal Ministry  of Works, the ICRC and other defendants from, among other things, taking any steps or action to “grant a re-concession or concession over the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway”

The  court  order  is  still  subsisting but the Commission hopes that this legal  bottleneck,  which may militate against the speedy completion of the extensive  reconstruction  of  this  very strategic highway can be amicably resolved  without  further  delay  so  that  Nigerians  and the economy can benefit from the expansive work planned for the road.”