TheCable

Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Group, says the economy loses about N20 billion daily to the state of Apapa-Wharf road.

Dangote, who commended the efforts of the government concerning the rehabilitation, said the state of the road is an embarrassment to the country.

He said: “The economy loses more than N20 billion daily. It affects businesses across the country. All our operations in the hinterland in Ilorin, in Kano are operating at 40 per cent maximum capacity.

“Today, there is no linkage road going from South West to the North. You have to go all the way through Ajaokuta, Obajana, Lokoja and you have to go by that uncompleted road Obasanjo started 13 years ago.

“More than 60 per cent of our country’s import and exports come through the port and we leave it unattended. That is why we started on our own. Flour Mills said they will join us, but now government changed the design because they want all the cables and pipes underground and to have a more robust solution.”

Dangote said the biggest problem of the road is drainage and explained that his company is constructing the road at zero profit.

“Both Dangote and Flour Mills are pumping in over N2.5 billion for the 2 kilometres double lane on each side making a total of 4 kilometres.

“The biggest problem is drainage because that is what is destroying the road. We will make sure this problem is sorted out once and for all. This thing should not be allowed to happen. We started discussion with the government over a year ago and we are happy that we have been given the opportunity to finally fix it.”

The federal government had on Saturday handed over the road to Dangote Industries Limited and Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc for immediate reconstruction with a concrete overlay.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by the federal government, Dangote, Nigeria Ports Authority and Flour Mills.