Ndoma-Egba Urges Completion Of Trans-African Highway

28 Aug Ndoma-Egba Urges Completion Of Trans-African Highway

A passionate appeal has been made by the Senate Leader, Chief Victor iLNdoma-Egba (SAN) on the African Development Bank (ADB), International communities and the Nigerian government to speed up the completion of the multi-billion Trans African Highway covering Nigeria-Cameroon-Kenya (Lagos – Mombasa).

According to reports, the 10,269 kilometre Lagos-Mombasa highways eastern half is complete through Kenya and Uganda, where locally it is known as the Trans- Africa Highway and its western extremity in Nigeria, Cameroon and Central African Republic is mostly complete but a long missing link across DR Congo currently prevents any practical use through the middle section.

Already a greater section of the road in Nigeria like the 240 kilometresfrom Enugu-Bansara-Mfum border with Cameroon are ready and in use. Speaking with reporters in Mfiim yesterday at the end of the road on the Nigerian side after an inspection of some of his constituency projects, Ndoma Egba said he started lobbying for the project with support from some of his colleagues and relevant ministries since his first term in office.

He said, “we would like to see this project completed soon to facilitate African integration and international trade. The project is supposed to go up to Mombasa in Kenya. So I am not in a position to tell you that because I don’t know what is going on at the other end. From the point here where we are, it is completed and it was in several hundreds of millions of dollars. It is an ADB project while part of it is done by the World Bank.

It is an international road done to the World Bank standard and I believe it is built to endure even though we have maintenance programme for it. It took lots of efforts and persistence and it started from my first term going to the minister of works, seeing virtually every minister,

liaising with ADB officials, as well as, foreign embassy officials. So it was plenty of work.”

“We also got lots of support from my colleagues in the Enugu end. Since we cannot solely rely on water transportation, so many depend on road transport for movement even with business transactions. So to that extent, the road is quite significant for the movement of goods and we appeal for its urgent completion.”

It was jubilation all the way on the N286 million Ajassor road facilitated by the senate leader as the community took delivery of the 4.5km road.

For years, the community had suffered but with the intervention, one of the community leaders, Chief Abgor Ndoma said, “this is a blessing for us as we can now move freely with our farm products.”