Adesina tweeted this on his Twitter handle @akin_adesina
obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
He said that the investment would strengthen regional trade
and integration in West Africa by linking the hinterlands of different
Participating Member Countries (PMCs).
The president said that the investment would include
providing sea port access to landlocked countries and some transition states of
West Africa to the vibrant seaports.
NAN reports that the Lagos-Abidjan highway interconnects the
capital cities of five Western African States, covering approximately 1,028 km
and eight border crossings.
They are Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
The Abidjan-Lagos Corridor is a flagship project of the
Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA).
It forms part of the wider Dakar-Lagos Corridor and a major
part of the Trans African Highway Network within the ECOWAS region.
The corridor’s current alignment traverses all major
economic centres of the five PMCs starting from “Bingerville”, a suburb of
Abidjan and ending at Mile 2 (Eric Moore), in Lagos.
In a statement issued by AfDB recently said the Abidjan
Lagos project is a key regional trade and transport corridor that interconnects
some of the largest and most economically dynamic cities in Africa, Abidjan,
Accra, Cotonou, Lomé and Lagos.
It also said that the corridor links other corridors along
the north-south axis and interconnects the landlocked countries of Burkina
Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad.
“The corridor interconnects the most densely populated and
economically active parts of the sub-region –it intersects with a rail network
and major ports/airports.
“The transport sector in West Africa plays a key role in the
economic development of the region and generates about five to eight per cent
of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“This remains cognisant of the fact that an efficient
regional transport network is an enabling infrastructure required to promote
regional trade and socio-economic development, inter alia.
“ECOWAS and WAEMU member states have consistently committed
themselves to the financing of designated regional transport corridors.
“The Abidjan –Lagos transport corridor currently supports
approximately 75 per cent of sub-regional trade activities.
“However, a combination o hard and soft infrastructure
deficiencies negates its optimal contribution to regional economic growth,’’
the Bank said.
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