AfDB Approves $185m For Trans-Sahara Highway

Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi(right), at the scene of the petrol tanker fire at Elele community in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State last Wednesday. Photo: NAN

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved the release of $184.79 million for the proposed 9,000-kilometre Trans-Sahara Highway.

The approval is contained in a statement issued by the bank  in Addis Ababa, recently.

It noted that the bank had approved the release of the amount during its meeting on December 11, held in Tunis.

According to the statement, the project involves the construction and asphalt of 565 kilometres of road to link the main axis and the Chadian branch of the Trans-Sahara Highway.

The statement added that part of the amount would be used for the construction of a 543-metre-long bridge on River Niger at Farié, with three kilometres of access road.

It would also include the construction of infrastructure to ease transport and transit at the Algeria and Niger and the Niger and Chad borders.

“The project will facilitate overland trade and regional integration between the Arab Maghreb Union, ECOWAS, Economic community of Central African States in general and Algeria, Niger and Chad, in particular.

“The project’s specific objective is to improve the TSH’s overall level of service and the living conditions of inhabitants of the project impact area.”

The bank statement pointed out that the project was designed to put infrastructure at the centre of economic, social, political and security stakes of the continent, with the highway located on the Algiers-Lagos and Dakar-Djibouti trans-African corridors as identified by the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa.