Grand plan for the reconstruction of the former Independence
House/Defense headquarters in Lagos into a state of the art World Trade
Centre may have suffered a setback due to the scourge of economic
recession in the country.
The project, which held promise only few
months ago to be formally handed over to a chosen investor by October 1
at the latest to transform the now badly dilapidated structure has been
forced to take a back seat due to lack of funds, according to senior
government officials.
It was gathered that the federal government
has stated that the project would have to wait contrary to the
expectations of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the
Tafawa Balewa Square Management Board, the agency in charge of the
project.
Reliable sources said that the funds which ought to have
been released for the publication of invitation to the public to
expression of interest in investing in the project is being delayed as
government can only commit funds to areas of the economy considered more
pressing at the moment.
However, strong assurances have recently
been given by the Finance Ministry that the project will be included in
the next batch of projects’ funding before the end of the year.
“The Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okey Enelamah,
has been complaining about the delay. So now, they have assured us that
the next stage for the release of funds, the Independence House project
will be included. Hopefully before the end of the year an investor will
emerge and the project will take off,” said the source.
Earlier,
the Infrastructure Bank, which is acting in the capacity of the
Transaction Advisers, has packaged a feasibility studies on the
viability of the project. It was submitted to the Infrastructure
Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) in Abuja sometime in August.
The
Infrastructure Bank emerged as Transaction Advisers to the project in
2013 through a bidding process was organised by the TBS Management Board
at the behest of the ICRC.
In 2014, it signed an agreement with
the Ministry for the sum of N150,364,000 to be paid but at the end of
the transaction. The money would be sourced from the payment of entry
fee that the selected investor will make to the federal government
before commencement of work on the site.
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