The Dualization and expansion of the Abuja -Keffi road by the Chinese Construction Company CHEC, has been confirmed as part of the 10,000km road project to Link African countries and will improve Socio-Economic Development in Africa by the Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Babatunde Fashola.
He made this known at A 2 day Summit held in Abuja, Nigeria on the 11th of November in Transcorp Hilton.
Ministers of the 6 Countries in the committee – Nigeria, Mali, Algeria, Tunisia, Chad and Niger, experts and other stakeholders in the field of Road development held the summit to highlight the progress of the project so far.
The Secretary General of the Trans-Saharan Road Liaison Committee, Ayadi Mohammed said the committee has done well so far and recorded valuable milestones
“As the most important today is no longer the physical realization of the project, which is very advancing since over then a total of almost 10,000km, more than 8,000km are Asphalted, 640km are in Progress and 900 in the state of track mainly in Mali. We will discuss the necessary valuation of this project and what must be done to stimulate trade between the two shores of the Sahara”.
The Road project consists of 9 Highways across Africa with 3 of these highways passing through Lagos to other Cities and Neighboring countries.
Fashola who hosted the summit, said the highway road link between Nigeria and Algiers has made progress.
“As you have heard, that road covers 9000+ Kilometers. 80% of that road is now Asphalted. Now it is important to contextualize that this is part of what we all read about as the Trans-Saharan trade route. This was the road of Camels and Horses. So how much Africa has progressed now is that with the partnership of all of the men sitting here and all of the experts, 80% of the road that used to be travelled by Camels and Horses, footpaths, is now Motorable.”
The Minister further encouraged African countries to take advantage of these Development to boost intra-African trading and exchange of goods stating that it will bring about socio-Economic Development
The Committee will conclude the session with a site visitation of the Road expansion and dualization projects already ongoing in Nigeria on the 12th of November. The road is built by Chinese road experts – China Harbour Engineering Company.