African Development Bank grants € 12.3 million for Abidjan-Lagos road corridor project

The African Development Bank approved an additional funding of € 12.33 million in favor of the ECOWAS Commission to cover part of the costs related to the study of the Abidjan – Lagos motorway corridor development project.   This corridor links the capitals of five West African states - Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria - and covers some 1,028 km and eight border posts. The current route of the corridor crosses the major economic centers of the five participating member countries, from Bingerville, in the suburbs of Abidjan, to Mile 2 (Eric Moore) in Lagos.
The Abidjan – Lagos project, an important regional trade and transport corridor, provides a link between economically dynamic cities in Africa, namely Abidjan, Accra, Cotonou, Lomé and Lagos. Its purpose is to strengthen trade and integration in West Africa, in particular by providing maritime port access to landlocked countries.
The transport sector in West Africa plays an essential role in the economic development of the region and generates around 5 to 8% of its gross domestic product. However, deficits in tangible and intangible infrastructure considerably reduce its impact on regional economic growth. The strategic importance of this project is due to the fact that the Abidjan-Lagos axis accounts for almost 75% of sub-regional commercial activities.
This road axis joins other corridors along the North-South axis and connects landlocked countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad. It not only links the most densely populated and economically active areas of the West African sub-region but it also crosses a rail network and joins the main ports and airports.
The Abidjan – Lagos corridor is a flagship project of the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), a continental initiative of which the African Development Bank is the executing agency. It is a component of the vast Dakar – Lagos coastal corridor project and constitutes an important section of the trans-African road network in the ECOWAS region.
It was during the 44 th ECOWAS Summit, held in March 2014, that a treaty on the establishment of the corridor was signed. The ECOWAS Commission, on behalf of the five member countries concerned, had requested, on this occasion, the support of the Bank for the financing of preparatory studies for the realization and management of the Abidjan – Lagos highway corridor project. The Bank's total contribution for this flagship project amounts to 22.4 million euros.
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