President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally requested Senate approval for a $516.3 million loan to finance the initial phases of the 1,000km Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway. The loan, to be secured from Deutsche Bank with a partial risk guarantee from the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), will fund Sections 1, Phase 1a and 1b, covering 120km of the corridor. In a letter read during Senate plenary on Thursday by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Tinubu stated that the Federal Executive Council had already endorsed the financing structure. The proposed loan has a nine-year term, including a three-year grace period, with interest capped at CME SOFR plus 5.3 percent annually. The federal government will contribute N265.54 billion as counterpart funding for land acquisition, compensation, and ancillary infrastructure. The superhighway will stretch from Illela in Sokoto State through Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, and Ogun States, terminating in Badagry, Lagos. Tinubu said the project will enhance North-South connectivity, reduce logistics costs, improve trade and food security, and include a central median reserved for future rail and utility lines. Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central) welcomed the initiative, noting the project had been delayed for 55 years. He confirmed ongoing construction activities, including laying concrete and asphalt roads with solar-powered streetlights, and projected a significant reduction in travel time between Sokoto and Lagos.
A 55-year wait for a highway now hinges on a foreign loan backed by an Islamic risk guarantee, yet the same urgency has not been applied to existing road networks decaying across the north. The federal government's N265.54 billion commitment for land and infrastructure contrasts with years of underfunding in rural road maintenance. If the median is already planned for rail, why has no active rail line been completed along this corridor in over half a century? Promises of reduced travel time mean little without accountability for past delays.
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