(Ecofin Agency) - Construction of the Lagos-Abidjan corridor, the deal which was signed since March 2014, will start by 2022. The good news was announced by AfDB Chairman, Akinwumi Adesina, on the sidelines of the 56th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government held Saturday in Abuja.

“The Lagos-Abidjan highway will become a reality [...] That’s why the African Development Bank has provided 11.1 million dollars to the ECOWAS Commission to develop the Master Plan for the Lagos-Abidjan highway corridor,” the leader said.

“And we will be providing an additional 13.5 million dollars for the feasibility studies to be completed in 2020. We expect that construction will start in 2022,” he added. The project is also receiving assistance from the European Union. It is one of the 16 projects included in the Priority Action Plan (PAP) of the African Union's Continental Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA).

The six-lane highway is 1,028 km long and includes 8 border crossing points, linking some of the largest and most economically dynamic cities in West Africa (Abidjan, Accra, Cotonou, Lomé, and Lagos). The stakes for the region, under this project, are high as the Lagos-Abidjan corridor will also connect West African seaports to all landlocked countries namely Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Romuald Ngueyap