…for Effective Commission of the 1,000 Kilometers: Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Neighborhoods are Exhorted to Allot Enough Space on the Right of Way

By Abdul Rahman Bangura–

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone- The agenda is a component of the African Union’s binding layouts for expanding commerce and transportation on the African Landmass, and would certainly give a six lane expressway, which would cost more than $16 billion.

A sum of 576 of the 1,028km extended highway traverses Ghana, and would enhance prevailing transportation infrastructure in what is supposed as West Africa’s most vital corridors.

Partners of the ECOWAS devoted to the project under an agreement in Abuja in 2013, and a Ministerial Steering Committee of the five countries along the line was established, and which has been supervising the array of national enactment. And the five nations along the line are Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria.

Rita Sarfoh – the Director of Policy Planning and Budgeting at the Ministry of Roads and Highways, in charge of the project direction in Ghana, told stakeholders in the Volta Region that Ghana must assure the provision of the right of way through hundreds of communities and expansive landscape.

Sarfoh said the feasibility studies component, spread across four phases, was coming upon outcome, and that an economically attainable highway that minimized environmental and cultural impacts had been known. A comprehensive specialized policy study has been finalized and financing and execution strategies are anticipated to be obtained by September 2023, to be pursued by other components including a road safety audit, trade and transport facilitations, and spatial developments.

Sarfo mumbled the trade and transport facilitation component would evaluate existing international procedures, especially in line with recently promoted Africa Inter Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.

An Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Management Authority would be established to manage the infrastructure.

“The main achievement is to reorganize transportation as a catalyst for the development of ECOWAS,” she told.

“Political leaders are very committed. Local stakeholders are also very interested. Everybody is looking forward to the road. It will have no interruptions, no speed ramps and would play a major role in trade and transport facilitation.”

“It is a project that when well done, would not be about the road, but also about improving the entire economies of the various countries.”

Collins Donkor – Deputy Chief Executive Development, at the Roads Ministry, said encroachments on spaces for road projects stayed a main problem and charged the stakeholders to help address the challenge. He illustrated how some things plotted to make a profit from state land accession by developing marked spaces and said such could affect the culmination of the Corridor and asked local government authorities, traditional leaders, and the public to cooperate to assure its accomplishment.

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