The African Development Bank (AfDB) has announced that the $430 million highway project linking Enugu to Bamenda in Cameroon expects completion in 2021 as it forms part of its investments in West Africa currently standing at 16 billion dollars.
Quoted in a statement, the President of AfDB, Akinwunmi Adesina, disclosed this information in a speech at the 59th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government in Ghana, noting that the $430 million highway project will transform trade opportunities between the two countries.
According to him, the highway would link 85 percent of the trade volume in ECOWAS through the corridor. While working on the present project, Adesina noted that the bank is working assiduously with the ECOWAS Commission to finalize feasibility studies for the Abidjan-Lagos corridor by the end of 2021, with construction for the corridor expected to commence within 24 months.
Adesina pointed out that AfDB was investing massively in West Africa and its support for infrastructure in the ECOWAS region has doubled over the past five years, increasing from two billion dollars in 2015 to four billion dollars.
Pointing out to critical regional infrastructure projects carried out by the AfDB, he mentioned the Senegambia Bridge, the Lome container port in Togo, the Bamako to San Pedro corridor which has helped to expand trade between Côte d’Ivoire and Mali by 34 percent, the 303km road linking Ouagadougou and Lome and the bank’s 650 million dollars financing for the transport corridors linking Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia which will impact on economic opportunities for 51 million people.
