Lagos State, Afreximbank sign $1.35bn facility for infrastructure

Lagos State and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), supported by Access Holding Plc on Monday signed a deal for a $1.35 billion facility for infrastructure and food security in the State.

The signing ceremony took place on the sideline of the ongoing 2023 AfriCaribbean trade and investment forum in Georgetown, Guyana.

“We will be providing the equivalent of $1.352 billion in local currency in support of Lagos State government of Nigeria to support key trade enabling infrastructure to help promote industrialisation and export manufacturing, ” said a representative from Afreximbank.

The fund will help create roads to link up productive centres with areas of consumption and areas of processing and will also create trade hubs, which will help the State disseminate and empower its people.

The deal we will be signing today is very strategic for Afreximbank because this financing is basically taking financing closer to the people by supporting the sub-sovereigns. It has been in the works with the Lagos State government and our strategic partner, Access Bank.

Speaking with journalists immediately after the signing ceremony in Guyana, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos State, said these are all legacy projects that will have tremendous impact on the entire citizens of Lagos State.

“They are five legacy projects in all. The first one is the first phase of the fourth mainland bridge that will start from Aja end of Lagos and cross the water up on to Ikorodu and move all the way to Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The second infrastructure is what we call the Omokrik, an infrastructure that will unlock a huge real estate, a huge infrastructure that has been land locked in Lagos because of the crossing over of a body of water to have access to the land. This is the new Lagos that we are trying to recreate. The third project will be the Lekki Airport,”

Also speaking, Herbert Wigwe, Group CEO, Access Holding Plc, said, “What we have today is remarkable. It is a sub-nation transaction being sponsored by Afreximbank and supported by Access Bank. I am here on behalf of Access Holding to witness what is perhaps the most outstanding transaction that has come up in recent times.

“The fund is for infrastructure, it is in local currency, $1.35 billion equivalent to support the third mainland bridge, to support food sufficiency in Lagos and other developmental infrastructure in Lagos. It is for a very significant tenor and we are making sure that we have the appropriate financing for the development of Lagos. The whole idea is to decongest Lagos, improve the infrastructure, to support the generation of increased Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of Lagos and continue to spur the growth in its GDP.”