Abuja 1^st of November 2016

ECOWAS Urges Stakeholders to Ensure Effective collaboration to deliver the Lagos-Abidjan Highway Corridor

Stakeholders, consultants and facilitators of the Abidjan-Lagos Highway Corridor Programme have been urged to ensure effective collaboration in the delivery of the essential project.

The proposed 6-lane Corridor is billed to facilitate the ECOWAS integration programmes by aiding the free movement of persons, goods and services in the region among others.

In her key note address at a two-Day Workshop for Inception Report Validation on Advisory Services for the early-stage preparation of the project which began in Abuja on the 1^st of November 2016, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure Dr. Antoinette Weeks expressed the hope that the review of the initial findings, refined approach and methodology as well as the revised work plan of the inception report will lead to a harmonized realization of the project. 

The Commissioner disclosed at the opening of the workshop, that the African Development Bank (AfDB) has now approved a total of $22.72 million (to be mobilized from the African Development Fund) and the European Union African Investment Facility (AfIF) for the feasibility and detailed engineering studies for the project.

She further disclosed that, at the same time, the ECOWAS Commission and the African Union Commission (AUC0 under the programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), have signed in June 2015, requisite support meant for both technical and some aspects of the programme.

Also, as part of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Development Program, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) through the African Union, is funding a Consultancy Service to provide Early-Stage Project Advisory Services (legal, institutional and communication) to the ECOWAS Commission and participating Member States. The Consultancy Firm is Gauff Ingenieure Company and the project is being coordinated by the Infrastructure Department of the ECOWAS Commission.

The ECOWAS Commission had been mandated to approach development partners for support in undertaking the technical preparatory studies to solicit investments in the projects.

The treaty of the Abidjan-Lagos Highway Corridor Project was signed by the ECOWAS Heads of States in 2014