Nigerian govt reveals investment in road infrastructure

19 April 2012

The Nigerian federal government has confirmed that its efforts to improve the country's road transport network has cost $300 million (£186.2 million) so far, the Daily Trust has reported.

Mike Onolememen, the minister of works, observed that the funding has helped to bring about significant improvements in the country's road network.

Many of the road projects help to linked Nigeria with northern Cameroon, thereby helping trade between the west African states.

Among the various groups funding the key infrastructure project are the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

Mr Onolememen lamented the fact that the poor state of the country's roads are inhibiting economic growth.

To meet its long-term target, outlined by the Vision 20:2020 project, Nigeria must pave around 300,000km of the road network.

At this point, though, just 60,000km out of the 195,400km of roads are paved.

In other news, the Nigerian government recently signed an agreement with General Electric that it hopes will lead to 40,000 mega watts per second of electricity generation by 2020.