PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally requested Senate approval for an external loan of $516,333,070 (₦698,340,477,175.00 in today’s exchange rate) to finance the initial sections of the proposed Sokoto–Badagry Superhighway, a flagship infrastructure project under his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
The request, contained in a letter read during Thursday’s plenary session, seeks a syndicated facility from Deutsche Bank to construct Sections 1, 1A, and 1B of the roughly 1,000-kilometre highway.
The route is designed to link Nigeria’s North-West to the South-West corridor, traversing seven states – Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos – from Illela near the Niger border to Badagry in Lagos State.
According to the President, the project promises enhanced connectivity, reduced logistics costs and travel time (cutting the Sokoto–Lagos journey from 13 hours to just six), improved road safety, facilitated trade, strengthened food security, and greater national integration.
The loan carries a nine-year tenor with a three-year grace period, an interest rate benchmarked at SOFR plus 5.3% per annum, and will be backed by a partial risk guarantee from the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit.
The Federal Government will provide ₦265.5 billion in counterpart funding for land acquisition and compensation.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio has referred the request to the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, with a one-week deadline for review, describing the superhighway as an “economic game-changer” that justifies borrowing for critical infrastructure.
However, the loan request has drawn sharp criticism from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who warned that it could deepen Nigeria’s already precarious debt burden.
In a statement issued by Phrank Shaibu, his spokesman, Atiku acknowledged the importance of infrastructure but accused the administration of “reckless fiscal choices” and a lack of transparency.
He questioned the absence of a competitive bidding process, citing reports that the contract has been awarded to Hitech Construction Company Limited – an echo, he said, of the controversy surrounding the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project.
“What manner of leadership takes loans in the name of the Nigerian people, only to channel those resources into contracts awarded without transparency to associates and insiders?” Atiku asked, insisting that the Sokoto–Badagry Superhighway must not become “a private bazaar for cronies and connected interests.”
He called on lawmakers to scrutinise the loan thoroughly, warning that “development must not become a euphemism for deepening debt traps that generations yet unborn will be forced to repay.”
