Lagos-Badagry Expressway: A neglected opportunity

In spite of the commendable efforts of the Lagos State government, work on the expansion of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, which began in 2008, is progressing at a very slow pace.

The expressway, Nigeria’s international gateway to other countries on the West African coast, is currently undergoing an expansion to ten lanes, with provisions for light rail and Bus Rapid Transit System. The Lagos International Trade Fair Complex and Alaba International Market (easily the largest electronics market in West Africa) are also located along the route.

The project was initially estimated to be completed within five years, at the cost of N220 billion ($1.3 billion), but so far, less than one-third of the work has been done, and the state governor, Babatunde Fashola, has said the greatest challenge confronting the execution of the project is funding.

The slow pace of the work is causing excruciating pain to users of that road who have to spend hours every day in gridlocks. Many portions of the expressway have collapsed, huge ditches dotting virtually every spot are widening by the day. Besides the man-hours lost, both the federal and state governments are also losing huge revenues as the bad shape of the expressway has no doubt affected the volume of trans-border trade along that route.

Analysts are of the opinion that the slow progress is a result of the inability of the Federal Government to see beyond politics and key into the Lagos State vision. At the pace the project is going, it is evident that the Lagos State government is struggling. A little support from the Federal Government would have gone a long way.

As the World Bank says in its maiden Nigeria Economic Report released in May, “Poor coordination between the FG and states prevents the efficient concentration of government resources towards priority investments and interventions that could unlock the country’s economic potential.”

We totally agree with an analyst, who spoke to BusinessDay off the record, that this project and others like it “are beyond politics”, necessitating intervention, and that “it is irresponsible of government not to intervene in this [Lagos-Badagry) road”.

Indeed, elsewhere in the world, governments at the federal level often see beyond political party differences to provide significant funding or grants for states to finance infrastructure projects which stimulate economic growth. For instance, in the United States, the Federal Government and Congress approved about $25 billion of federal aid package to the State of New Jersey to help rebuild everything from transportation to housing battered by Hurricane Sandy, in spite of the state being run by the Republican opposition.

Same with China, where the central government has channelled billions of dollars to the regional governments to build infrastructure and boost growth and employment. But in Nigeria, the story is different, resulting in piecemeal execution of huge infrastructure projects.

We believe that the Nigerian economy, which the IMF forecasts to grow by 7.2 percent in 2013, may be able to expand to double digits if resources are channelled to projects with multiplier effects, such as the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, and others that can help narrow the output gap, the gap between the economy’s actual output and potential output.