The incredible new £11.3bn road - 621 miles long and connecting five African countries
The Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Development Project is due to be completed in 2030.
Construction is underway in Benin for a new motorway that will form part of a major new road route through West Africa. The stretch of the tarmac will connect five African cities, including Benin’s capital, Porto Novo, with Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos.
Costing an estimated £11.3bn in total, the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Development Project will enable faster and more efficient road travel between Benin, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Togo, and Ghana. The road is set to be completed by 2030.
The corridor starts from Bingerville, in the eastern suburbs of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast and it ends in Lagos Mile 2 on Eric Moore Road. It straddles eight border crossings, including Abidjan and Takoradi in Ghana, and Noepe in Togo and Cotonou in Benin.
Madu Obiora, CEO of Multimix Group and Director General of African Centre for Supply Chain, said the new motorway will facilitate trade and deepen ties in the region. He said: "It will benefit, but it depends on great we are to trade locally, it depends on how we attribute to trade diversification, and trade compliance."
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He added: "The road is there, those who are ready to use it will use it and make the gain from it, and those who are not ready will also gain in their way."
The EU is part-funders of the six-road motorway. Head of Co-operation of EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr. Kurt Cornelis, said of the £7.5m investment in the project: "The stakes for the region are high, as this corridor links five West African countries, connecting the main ports of the region and two railway lines, as well as several North-South corridors, as well as serving directly four further countries in the hinterland."
