Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Works and Housing, made the announcement yesterday at the State House in Abuja at a special weekly ministerial briefing.

According to him, the N206 billion project directly employed 1,486 individuals while also creating 8,110 indirect employees.

The 375-kilometer Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway, estimated at 797 billion naira, the 11.59-kilometer Second Niger Bridge, estimated at N206 billion, and the 127-kilometer Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, estimated at 310 billion naira, totaling N1.3 trillion, are among the major projects under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, according to the minister.

He said, “The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Second Niger Bridge will be completed by the end of the year while the main Carriageway of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway is scheduled for completion by the second quarter of 2023.

“The Second Niger Bridge was first proposed during the 1978/79 political campaign by then-candidate Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).”

However, in August 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) authorized a contract costing N325 million for the bridge’s final planning and design.

President Muhammadu Buhari resumed a convoluted process that began with the cancellation of the previous contract in August 2015.