Leadership Why We’re Taking Over Lekki Concession Rights – LASG By: GEORGE OKOJIE on August 29, 2013 - 2:25am Lagos State Government says it decided to acquire the existing concession rights and toll revenue benefits held by the Lekki Concession Company (LCC), the concessionaire for the Eti-Osa Lekki-Epe expressway for the benefit of Lagosians. The state Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Ben Akabueze who disclosed this while explaining the rationale behind the action said the move is to prevent wanton increase of toll by the concessionaire. The commissioner said the current economic condition of the state is better than what it was about 10 years ago when it entered into the concession agreement of the N50 billion worth expressway. According to him, “As a people-focused government, we are honest and humble enough to look at the choices we have made and have now decided to buy-back the road. “When we do, we will be able to determine the tolling rate, number of tolling points among others. The current concessionaire has in fact proposed another 20 per cent increase in current toll rate collected on the road. But with us taking over, we will decide that too”. Also speaking on the issue, the State commissioner for Finance, Mr. Ayo Gbeleyi, said the state government would be paying the sum of N15 billion as buyout fund while N6.8 billion will be used to service existing debt obligations of the tolling company and N3.5 billion for third party liability. He explained that the sum of N32 billion has so far been spent on the road, with State government paying N5billion in 2008. According to Gbeleyi, “The original concessioning agreement is to last 30 years, from November 2008 to November, 2030.”But with our proposal and our transaction, the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be maintained with government owning it 100 per cent”. It would be recalled that the State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola had in the letter to the House of Assembly for the Supplementary Budget said the government is restructuring its borrowing plan as the N30billion World Bank DPO II was no longer feasible.
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 07:37:39 +0000
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