top of page

ECOWAS Roads Ministers Agree for Accelerated Action on Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Project






Abuja, June 3, 2022 – ECOWAS has organized the sixteenth (16th) Project Ministerial Steering Commitee on the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Project in Abuja, Nigeria on 3rd June 2022 in a bid to fasttrack necessary process towards the development and delivery of the important Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway.

The Project technical studies suffered major delays as a result of lockdowns and border closures during the hieghts of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Key among the objectives of the Sixteenth (16th) Steering Committee meeting was therefore to review practical ways of expediting the implementation of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway project which involves the finalization of the technical studies to aid the construction of a 3-lane dual carriage highway. The Ministers also considered the enourmous investment interest received from participants at the Project market pitch delivered at the March 2022 African Investment Forum Boardroom, the estabslishment of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Management Authority (ALCoMA) and other technical recommendations from the preceeding Committee of Experts meeting.

Welcoming Ministers and participants to the meeting, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Mr. Pathe Gueye recalled key conclusions of the October 22, 2022 virtual Steering Committee which included the endoresment of the draft reports of the techno-economic feasibility and preliminary design studies. He added that “the past two days have enabled project Engineers and Directors from the five corridor countries, ECOWAS and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to take stock of the decisions taken at the last meeting of the steering committee, the progress of all project components, the tolloing system to be adopted for the highway, overload control, right of way aquisition and concerns regarding contracts extension for the technical studies.” He explained further that the Abidjan-Lagos project, remains a flagship project for the ECOWAS Commission, and recently attracted the interest of several investors during the last Africa Investment Forum with the AfDB Group and other major public investors such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) as well as private equity funds expressing their full support for the project and have committed to organizing a second forum in the near future with greater involvement of the private sector to examine new financing options.

Comments


bottom of page