The on-going reconstruction and expansion of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, Lagos will be completed by the end of 2020, the federal government and Aliko Dangote have assured.
The duo gave the assurance on Saturday during an inspection tour of the project which has seen appreciable progress.
Dangote is financing the reconstruction of the expressway at the cost N72.9 billion under the federal government’s infrastructure tax credit scheme.
The expressway is being reconstructed using concrete pavement which, according to Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, will last for 40 years.
Fashola who led the inspection tour noted that the reconstruction of the expressway was about Apapa economy which, he noted, has been badly affected by the congestion and gridlock in and around Apapa as a port city.
Dangote said that they had to undertake the reconstruction of the expressway because of its negative impact on the national economy.
He disclosed that two of their companies lost N25 billion to Apapa ports congestion between 2017 and 2018.
“We were producing but we could not take our products out of Apapa due to congestion,” he explained.
The business mogul was optimistic that the provision of good port access roads would restore investor confidence in Apapa just as residents and businesses in the port city would be the better for it.
