Lagos – Calabar coastal freeway will get $1.2 billion UAE-backed mortgage 

The Federal Authorities has secured about $1.2 billion in financing from the United Arab Emirates to advance building of a key section of the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Freeway.

The Presidency made this announcement in an announcement on Friday, in keeping with Bloomberg.

The funding will probably be utilized to a 56-kilometre part of the coastal freeway, one of many Federal Authorities’s flagship infrastructure tasks.

When accomplished, the freeway is predicted to span 700 kilometres alongside Nigeria’s Atlantic shoreline, linking main financial and business centres.

What FG is saying 

President Bola Tinubu mentioned the deal ensures uninterrupted progress on the mission as the federal government intensifies efforts to shut Nigeria’s infrastructure hole.

“It is a main achievement, and shutting this transaction means the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Freeway will proceed unimpeded,” President Bola Tinubu mentioned in the assertion. 

He added that the federal government would proceed to pursue artistic financing choices to assist large-scale infrastructure improvement throughout the nation.

Context and backstory 

In July, Nigeria secured a further $747 million in financing for one more part of the identical freeway, demonstrating the mission’s scale and phased funding construction.

• The deal was led by Deutsche Bank, performing because the World Coordinator and Lead Arranger, alongside a consortium of worldwide and regional lenders.
• Along with Deutsche Bank, the mortgage syndicate contains distinguished establishments equivalent to First Abu Dhabi Bank, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the ECOWAS Bank for Funding and Improvement (EBID), Nexent Bank N.V. (previously Credit score Europe Bank N.V.), and Nigeria’s personal Zenith Bank.
• The mortgage was totally underwritten by First Abu Dhabi Bank, with threat mitigation supplied by the Islamic Company for the Insurance coverage of Funding and Export Credit score, reflecting rising Gulf participation in Nigeria’s infrastructure financing.
• Hitech Development’s Managing Director, Dany Abboud, confirmed that over 70% of the part is accomplished.

He emphasised that using CRCP expertise would guarantee unmatched sturdiness and price effectivity, setting a brand new normal for street building in Nigeria.

The Lagos–Calabar Coastal Freeway has been positioned as a transformative transport hall geared toward bettering logistics, commerce, tourism and regional integration.

What this implies 

The newest UAE-backed facility strengthens funding certainty for one among Nigeria’s largest street tasks and alerts sustained worldwide confidence within the nation’s infrastructure programme.

If delivered as deliberate, the coastal freeway may considerably cut back journey time, stimulate coastal financial exercise, and improve connectivity between southern states—key aims of the Tinubu administration’s development and improvement agenda.