In Nigeria, when the government – Federal, State, etc – announce how much they spend, or intend to spend, on a short distance road project, the amount always leaves one feeling dizzy.

It has become the norm; in Nigeria, the average cost for constructing a kilometer of road is N1Billion. And this is against the World Bank’s benchmark of N238million.

Even sadder is that when eventually completed, some of these roads do not stand the test of time.

According to a 2009-2013 report on Road Infrastructure Development in Nigeria, the cost of road construction in Nigeria compared to other African countries is outrageous

The report was published by the Abuja-based Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). It was a report based on an earlier study conducted by the World Bank in 2000.

According to the CSJ report, in Nigeria, constructing a kilometer of road costs between N400 million and over N1 billion.


Now, here are a few examples to support the CSJ report.

In 2013, the Federal Government awarded the contract for the reconstruction of the 127km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at N167bn ($1bn at the time it was awarded)

Interestingly, and also in 2013, a similar contract was awarded for the 1,028km Lagos-Abidjan road project. The Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) estimated this project to cost between N167bn and N240bn.

Note, the ECOWAS six-lane project is expected to connect five (5) major cities in the region namely Lagos, Nigeria; Cotonou, Benin Republic; Lome, Togo; Accra, Ghana and Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire.

In other words, the number of kilometers to be covered by the ECOWAS project is 8 times higher than Nigeria’s Lagos-Ibadan Express road project; and the cost per kilometer is far lower than that of Nigeria.

At the projected maximum cost of N240bn, the cost of the ECOWAS road per km will be N234m. Whereas the six-lane Expressway road contract awarded by the Federal Government at N167bn cost N1.3bn per kilometer.

In the Limpopo Province of South Africa, to build a kilometer of paved road, it will cost N33m or $194,000, while the maintenance cost stands at N7.6m ($45,000).

Meanwhile, in 2006, the Lagos State Government signed a 30-year concession agreement with the Lekki Concession Company to finance, build, operate and maintain the Lekki-Epe Expressway. This was to be for a given period before it would revert to the government. The concession model can otherwise be called BOT- Build, Operate and Transfer.

At a cost of approximately N1bn ($5.9m) per km, the Lekki-Epe Expressway project also far overshoots the World Bank benchmark.


For more examples of outrageous road construction costs in Nigeria, read more at:

https://autojosh.com/is-nigeria-the-costliest-place-to-build-roads-in-the-world/

Lalasticlala
Mynd44
Ishilove
Marpol
Semid4lyfe
Obinoscopy
Seun

Sadly yes,due to the undieing corruption practice in the zoo.no iota of transparency in any sector.

Various levels of kick back are solely
Responsible for this. Immediately the idea of road construction is conceived, the Oga and his boys go know say food don done.

Op thank you for this post the outrageous cost of building a road in Nigeria will make someone to share tears, the worst of it is that the same road will not stand a test of time is only in Nigeria a government will celebrate a kilometre of road with outrageous cost and people will call him working governor what a disgrace ?

the way these people are eating our money ehh.... if person think am too much ehh... na heart attack straight..

This explains the snail pace of development in the country

What do you expect from politicians that are on codeine diet.

But how do these politicians want their thunder to be served??

...it's all because of corruption...

Thanks to Raji Fashola who as governor of Lagos set the corrupt bench mark of 1 billion Naira to 1KM for road construction and precedence other corrupt state govts have since adopted . Today as Minister of works Fashola has gone further to increase this outrageous benchmark to 1.5 billion Naira per KM .