The construction of the 700 kilometres first Nigeria’s coastal highway has been flagged off in Lagos, the nation’s commercial nerve centre.
President Bola Tinubu flagged the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road on Sunday.
He said the Highway will provide direct and indirect employment for over 30 million citizens.
Tinubu also said the design procurement of 1000 kilometres Sokoto-Badagry super highway was in process.
He said that the project which, aligned with the Renewed Hope initiative, would grow value and explore Nigeria’s abundant assets.
“This 700 Km superhighway, a 10-lane road project represents a crucial step in our efforts to enhance connectivity, facilitate economic growth and improve the quality of life for our people.
” It will provide direct employment for millions of people across coastal states and over 30 million citizens will benefit and have access to production and marketing centres.
“This project is more than just a road – it is a symbol of hope, unity, and prosperity.
” It will connect our communities in nine states, foster trade and commerce, boost tourism and create new opportunities for generations to come,” Tinubu said.
He, however, noted that Nigeria was experiencing a temporary period of difficulty.
The president emphasised the urgency of investing in long-lasting infrastructure projects that would benefit people for many years to come.
Additionally, Tinubu said that the coastline infrastructure was directly linked to the Lekki Free Trade Zones, Deep seaports and Dangote Refinery.
This, he said, was the reason Nigerians should harness the full potential of the project, aimed to bring millions of opportunities to communities and coastline states.
Tinubu assured citizens that his administration would speed up efforts to accelerate industrialisation, saying that concerted move were being made to boost industrial growth, drive economic prosperity and create employment opportunities for Nigerians.
He acknowledged that in the midst of challenges, the country was taking bold efforts and endeavours to be successful and have good landmark of infrastructure to treasure.
Tinubu lauded the industrial efforts of Aliko Dangote, Hi-Tech Construction company and Chagoury Groups in navigating the stormy waters of business in Nigeria and Africa.
Earlier, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, described the 700 km Lagos-Calabar coastal road as a “bold infrastructure policy” that would earn Tinubu a second term in office.
He named some of the policies implemented by Tinubu as the student loans and the rehabilitation of several dilapidated roads.
This policies, he said, had earned him several accolades as the greatest infrastructure leader in Sub-Saharan African economy.
Akpabio advocated the amendment of Bureau of Procurement Act in budgetary allocation.
He assured that the implementation of the acts into the budget, would allow full completion of projects in due time.
The projects would be fully completed in due time and address issues of abandoned roads, dilapidated roads and moribund infrastructure in the country.
The Minister of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi, said the ministry was committed to driving the project to completion.
He added that human face was put to the project, to save telecommunication infrastructure, submarine cables and critical national assets in the country.
This, Umahi said, informed the decision to realign routes to save workstation and business infrastructure.
Umahi restated that compensations had been paid up to Kilometer six.
He applauded President Tinubu’s efforts in bridging the gap of infrastructure deficit in the country.
Also, Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, described the highway project as an “audacious step” of the Renewed Hope Agenda.
According to him, its a step to facilitate regional markets, strengthen economic diversification and drive local content development for bold and transformation projects.
Sanwo-Olu said, ” the renewed hope is here, we can now have handshake across regional corridors and geopolitical zones, to populate business growth.”
He stressed that the project would build new conversations for tourism, foreign direct investment and strengthen transformation projects across federal and sub-national levels.
He commended the efforts of the president in bringing generational change and re-tooling the nations economy.
Similarly, Gov. Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, said the coastline project was an indelible legacy of President Tinubu’s administration.
He said that the project would deepen investment drive, improve Return On Investment and connect emerging markets to link the six-geopolitical zones in the country.
Abiodun said infrastructure was the key enabler of economic growth, and the Lagos-calabar concrete road, the only coastline road in Nigeria, would take off in the financial capital of Lagos State, into eight other states in the country.
Underscoring the commitment of the Renewed Hope Agenda, Abiodun remarked that the coastline project would reduce travel time, reduce man-hour lost and boost industrial sector growth to provide employment.
He, however, commended the efforts of the president for resolving all the issues of coastline realignment, gazetted routes and right of way