ECOWAS URGES TIMELY DELIVERY OF ABIDJAN-LAGOS HIGHWAY PROJECT
The ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Mr. Ebrima Njie has called on the five Member Countries involved in the Lagos-Abidjan Highway Corridor Project to double their efforts to ensure a timely delivery of the 1,028-km road project linking some of the region’s major capital cities and ports.
Addressing the 4th Steering Committing Meeting of Ministers of Works and Road Infrastructure from Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo in Abuja on 28th February 2014, the Commissioner who spoke on behalf of the Commission’s President said: “We now have to urgently firm up decisions to enable the various components of the Project to take off,” given the tremendous “excitement building around this project due to obvious positive reasons.”
“We therefore owe it on ourselves to make this (project) work for the good of our respective countries and the ECOWAS Region at large,” Commissioner Njie added.
Leaders of the five countries have already endorsed the Committee’s recommendation at its 3rd session in Yamoussoukro last December requiring the five countries to contribute US$50 million in “seed fund” to show their commitment to the implementation of the project which comes under Phase I of the Lagos-Dakar regional infrastructural development Programme aimed at boosting trade as well as free movement of persons, goods and services in the region.
The Commissioner reported that a Selective Tendering process was being initiated to select Consultants to undertake the Feasibility and Design Studies for the project, while the African Development Bank (AfDB) had been approached for funding the studies as part of the initial Fund Mobilization and Project financing efforts.
“We also continue to engage the Government of China for the possibility of supporting the development of the entire Lagos-Dakar Corridor,” he said.
The Committee Chairman, Nigeria’s Minister of Works Mr. Mike Onolememen underlined the need for the selection of the “best” Consultants as “none of our countries can afford to see the huge resources being invested in the project, go to waste, nor the project stalled due to the incompetence on the part of consultants.”
“We have seen countries like China, Japan and others showing serious intentions to be involved in the project because they have noticed how committed we are towards actualizing the project in record time,” the Minister affirmed.
According to him, “we are on the verge of unleashing the economic potentials of our countries that has been stunted by the long awaited improvement of the Lagos-Abidjan corridor.”
Benin, Ghana and Togo, also used the opportunity to reiterate their total commitment to the speedy implementation of the project.
The 4th meeting was also attended by officials of the ECOWAS Commission, including the Director of Transport Mr. David Kamara.
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