The House of Representatives yesterday approved President Bola Tinubu’s request to secure a $516.33m loan from Deutsche Bank to finance Section I of the ambitious Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway project, another key infrastructure of Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. The approval was in response to the president's request by the Committee of Supply during a plenary presided over by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.
In a letter read in a hallowed chamber, Tinubu described the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway as a transformative national project aimed at connecting Nigeria’s far northwest to its southwestern coastline through an approximately 1,000-kilometre dual carriageway stretching from Illela in Sokoto State to Badagry in Lagos State.
The corridor is expected to pass through Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos states, opening up major agricultural, commercial and industrial hubs across the country.
According to the president, the project was designed to stimulate economic growth by considerably improving the movement of goods and people across Nigeria’s northern and southern regions.
The highway will “improve north-south connectivity, safety and network performance on the corridor; reduce logistics costs and travel times by providing a continuous high-capacity motorway standard link to downstream markets and strengthen trade facilitation, food security and national cohesion through improved access between production zones, markets and ports,” he said.
Tinubu further noted that the road project would “safeguard long-term intermodal flexibility by reserving the central median for future rail integration and accommodating utility corridors".
According to the president's request, the funding arrangement involves a $516.33m facility from Deutsche Bank, backed by partial guarantee cover from the insurance arm of the Islamic Development Bank, while the federal government will provide counterpart funding of N265.54bn.
The counterpart contribution, he said, would cover land acquisition, compensation payments, and complementary infrastructure requirements.
Tinubu urged lawmakers to expedite legislative approval of the borrowing request in view of the strategic importance of the project to national development.
The Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway was conceived as one of Nigeria’s most expansive road infrastructure projects, intended to serve as an economic backbone linking the resource-rich northern corridor with major export gateways in the south.
Beyond easing transportation challenges, the superhighway is expected to boost agricultural supply chains, enhance regional trade, improve access to seaports, and attract investments in manufacturing, logistics and real estate along its route.
The project also aligns with broader government plans to modernise transport infrastructure and strengthen Nigeria’s competitiveness under the African Continental Free Trade Area framework.
Presenting the report of the House Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management, Abdullahi El-Rasheed, who represented the committee chairman, Abubakar Nalaraba, urged lawmakers to support the loan request, citing the project’s strategic economic value.
After a serious deliberation, the House approved the borrowing request at plenary, paving the way for the commencement of the project’s first section.
