President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has asked the Senate to approve a $516.3 million loan to fund sections of the 1,000km Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway project.
In a letter read during plenary on Thursday by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Tinubu said the loan will be sourced from Deutsche Bank and backed by a partial risk guarantee from the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC).
The funds will cover Sections 1, Phase 1a and 1b of the project, spanning 120km of the total corridor. The highway will run from Illela in Sokoto State through Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, and Ogun, ending in Badagry, Lagos State.
According to the President, the Federal Government will provide N265.54 billion in counterpart funding for land acquisition, compensation, and ancillary infrastructure.
The loan has a nine-year tenor, including a three-year grace period, with interest not exceeding CME SOFR plus 5.3 percent per annum. Tinubu noted that the Federal Executive Council had already approved the financing arrangement.
He said the superhighway will improve North-South connectivity, cut logistics costs, boost trade and food security, and reserve the central median for future rail integration and utility corridors.
Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central) welcomed the project, saying it had been in the pipeline for 55 years.
He said ongoing work includes concrete and asphalt roads with solar streetlights, and estimated that travel time from Sokoto to Lagos would drop from 13 hours to about six hours when completed.
Akpabio referred the request to the Committee on Foreign and Local Debts, which is expected to report back within one week.
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