Hope is rising for users of terrible roads that lead to Nigeria’s premier ports at Apapa as President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has assured Nigerians that the Apapa Port Wharf concrete road currently under construction by his company would be completed on schedule.
His company AG Dangote is handling the project which would be a poster card for concrete roads in Nigeria.
Dangote said that the company was working to deliver on schedule to save the people and businesses the hassles of the traffic gridlock being experienced on the road now.
Going to Apapa is an ordeal which many motorists try to avoid as some vehicles might be trapped in the gridlock for upwards of five hours for a distance of less than 10 kilometres.
Dangote visited the construction area in company with the Managing Director of the AG Dangote Construction Company, Mr Ashif Juma, on Thursday to assess the extent of work done.
The Apapa Port road which is the artery of the nation’s non-oil economy, has been in a state of disrepair over a long period of time with experts claiming that the nation is losing about N20 billion daily owing to the state of dilapidation of the road as imports are trapped in the ports for days as a result of traffic gridlock generated by the bad road.
Dangote Group, a pan African Conglomerate and a major stakeholder at the ports brokered a tripartite arrangement with Flour Mills, a leading Nigerian Food Company and Nigerian Port Authority, (NPA), taking over the road from the Federal Government and undertaking the reconstruction of the road into a lasting concrete pavement as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.
The road construction in which both NPA and Flour Mills have financial outlay as their contributions while AG Dangote Construction, a subsidiary of the Dangote Group, is undertaking the construction, is to cost the three partners N4.3 billion.
Dangote said the road will be completed in few months’ time and that Nigerians would be surprised to see the project delivered even before scheduled, saying efforts are being redoubled by his company to ensure quality job and timely completion.
He said that by the time the road construction is completed, “even some of the advanced countries would not be able to boast of the quality.” He explained that what actually delay the take-off of the project was the gas pipeline that has to be relocated to pave the way for unfettered construction work “and having done that, you could see that the work is progressing at a very fast speed.”
