The broadening of 35-km Apapa-Oshodi Expressway connecting Lagos’ biggest port Apapa to the Ojota district, an ambitious project undertaken by the Nigeria’s biggest industrial enterprise the Dangote Group, will be completed soon. The expanded expressway now will have 10 lanes. It will de-congest the Apapa-Oshodi highway, which was built in 1978 and a sore point now because of traffic gridlocks.
Apapa is the biggest port in Nigeria and queueing up of trucks on the highway is a daily sight, which results in higher turnaround of cargoes moved between the port and other industrial cities of Nigeria. Aliko Dangote, chairman of the group said his company expended US$69m between 2017 and 2019 for the project.
High pressure traffic in Lagos, where 21 million people live is a nightmare. The city has no public rail system. Currently an urban light rail system is being constructed, which may be commissioned by 2022. It can address some of the challenges of the city transport. The exhortation of the government to the industry to use inland water transport system for transportation of goods domestically did not have the desired impact. Inland water transport system has its own challenges be they water taxis or ferries.
The construction work on the expressway kicked off in 2018 as part of a deal with the Nigerian government, which granted a 10-year tax rebate for the project. That will give a subsidy of US $201million. The project initiated in 2013 at a cost of US $441 million was struck in 2015 because of the financial and other issues. Aliko Dangote was roped in to execute the project in 2017.
