The Competing Interests in the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway

Beyond being a transformative infrastructure project aimed at connecting Nigeria’s southern coastline, the story of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway represents the interplay of competing interests in undertaking monumental economic projects.

When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came into office on 29 May 2023, he inherited an economy that was—and essentially still is—struggling with sky-high unemployment and immense debt. He assured Nigerians that he would ‘repay [citizens] through massive investment in transportation infrastructure…and other public utilities that will improve the quality of lives.’ He attempted to follow through by kicking off his administration with the end of Nigeria’s fuel subsidy programme. While experts from the International Institute for Sustainable Development backed the move, agreeing that the subsidy had become an increased financial burden, the decision thrust the country into arguably one of the worst cost-of-living crises and unsurprisingly skyrocketed the cost of transportation, which ultimately affected the cost of food and services.  

Though this proved too steep a change to make, as the International Monetary Fund suggested in May 2024 that there is an implicit subsidy in the government’s cap on petrol prices, it was a grand step in the new administration’s plans to tackle the country’s economy. Fast-forward to the present day and the Tinubu administration has taken another bold step in the direction of country-wide economic growth. It has introduced the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.  

The federal government announced the construction of the highway in March 2024. The government envisioned the highway as a modern transportation artery and an ambition that symbolizes hope, unity and prosperity. According to the minister of works, Senator David Umahi, the highway’s development is estimated to cost up to ₦15.6 trillion ($12.5 billion) over an eight-year construction period. In a statement by presidential aide, Temitope Ajayi on X, the infrastructure is said to be ‘a monumental civil engineering project [that] will usher in a new era of ambitious road infrastructural development projects in Nigeria.’ 

The highway will stretch approximately 700 kilometres along Nigeria’s southern coastline. Its purpose is to connect the country’s six geopolitical regions through nine states (Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom) from the former capital city, Lagos, to Calabar, Cross River state. The project’s co-financing structure places the burden of funding on the federal government and the contractor, Hitech Construction Company Limited. Through this model, the federal government will provide up to 30 per cent of the budget required to complete the undertaking while the contractor provides the rest. This method ensures that the highway financing burden does not ultimately fall on citizens. The highway will support travel by car and train as it will include the construction of a dual carriageway. Each carriageway will have five lanes and a train infrastructure in the middle...