$15.1 Billion ECOWAS Vision 2050: Partners discuss a 1st Round Table Dialogue on Financing Abidjan – Lagos Super National Highway

By Abdul Rahman Bangura–

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone– This is a project that is scheduled at the nucleus of the ECOWAS Vision and the 4 x 4 strategic goals of the ECOWAS Commission Management. This 8km corridor highway will unite the financial capitals of five West African nations, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, making a crucial portion of the Trans-African Highway Network that initiates from Praia in Cabo Verde through Dakar, Abidjan, Lagos which binds Central and East Africa to end at Mombasa in Kenya.

The solemn opening of the round table took place, with a speech delivered by Stéphane Ezoa – Deputy Director of Cabinet on behalf of the Minister of Equipment and Maintenance of Roads for Cote d’Ivoire offered a speech during the first round table discussion. Dr. Amédé Koffi Kouakou emphasized that the administrations of his government lend tremendous primacy to this highway and are determined to work with the other corridor nations and ECOWAS to attain great vision of the five Presidents.

Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitization of the ECOWAS Commission – Sediko Douka who leads the ECOWAS delegation…of Mambury Njie, Advisor for Economic and Financial Integration to the President of the ECOWAS Commission and Chris Appuah, Acting Director of Transport of ECOWAS, expressed in his speech that Abidjan-Lagos Road Corridor Project is being carried out not only as a road project but as an integrated “development corridor” which will again catalyze the deployment of other important sectors such as industry, energy, environment, ICT, tourism in the region, therefore evolving a financial corridor to strengthen the development of the Region.

‘For all these reasons, the ECOWAS Commission, The African Development Bank and the Member States along the corridor call on all public and private investors to join in realizing this noble vision that will sustainably transform the economic landscape of our region” Commissioner Douka noted.

Joseph Ribeiro – Deputy Director General, West Africa, African Development Bank, representing Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, Vice-President, Regional Development, Integration and Service Delivery, African Development Bank, in his speech, pointed up the integrative nature of this project, which will have an important regional impact. He stressed that the project will be very significantly in the culmination of the AfCFTA.

Dr. Mabouba Diagne, Vice-President Finance and Corporate Services at the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (BIDC), the strong mobilization of IFDs and Donors at this 1st round table, shows an important signal of the investor appetite for the construction of the Abidjan – Lagos Highway.

For New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports,  Africa Correspondent