Published by Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Thursday requested the Senate to approve a fresh $516,333,007 syndicated loan from Germany's Deutsche Bank to fund the execution of the first phase of the long-delayed 1,000-kilometre Sokoto–Badagry Superhighway, a flagship infrastructure initiative under his administration's Renewed Hope Agenda. The loan request, contained in a formal communication to Senate President Godswill Akpabio and read during plenary, seeks to finance Sections 1, Phase 1a and 1b of the highway, covering approximately 120 kilometres of the total 1,000 kilometre corridor. The financing arrangement comes with a nine-year repayment period, including a grace window of up to three years, with interest pegged at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) SOFR plus 5.3 percent per annum.
The proposed financial package is structured as a syndicated loan through Deutsche Bank AG, with additional backing from a partial risk guarantee supplied by the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), the insurance arm of the Islamic Development Bank. Alongside the external borrowing, the Federal Government is expected to provide counterpart funding amounting to an estimated ₦265.5 billion.. This counterpart funding will cover land acquisition costs, compensation for affected property owners, and ancillary infrastructure development along the highway corridor.
President Tinubu, in his letter to the upper chamber, described the superhighway as a transformative economic corridor designed to connect Nigeria's northwest to its southwest, linking production zones directly to markets and seaports. The route will run from Illela in Sokoto State through Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo and Ogun States, terminating at the coastal town of Badagry in Lagos State. According to the President's communication, the project aims to enhance north-south connectivity and road safety, reduce logistics costs and travel time, facilitate trade, strengthen food security and promote national integration by bridging the country's vast geographical divide. Provisions are also being made to reserve the central median for future rail integration and utility corridors, ensuring long-term infrastructure efficiency.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who presided over the plenary, immediately referred the loan request to the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, chaired by Senator Aliyu Wamakko (APC, Sokoto North), with a firm directive to report back within one week. The referral follows standard legislative procedure, which stipulates that any external borrowing request must first undergo scrutiny by the committee before the full Senate can consider approval.
During the plenary debate, Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central) rose in strong support of the initiative, revealing that the superhighway project had remained on the drawing board for a staggering 55 years before the current administration took decisive action. Aliero disclosed that he had personally inspected both completed and ongoing sections of the road, which, he noted, are being constructed using reinforced concrete and fitted with solar-powered streetlights. He estimated that, upon completion, the travel time between Sokoto and Lagos would be slashed by more than 70 per cent, reducing a gruelling 13-hour journey to approximately six hours. He urged his colleagues to give full legislative backing to the President's request once the committee submits its report.
The proposed financing is not the first infrastructure loan package to be reviewed by the National Assembly in recent months. At the end of March 2026, the Senate approved President Tinubu's request for a $6 billion external loan to plug fiscal gaps and finance key infrastructure projects, following a report presented by Senator Wamakko and the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts. In that instance, the approval process moved at an accelerated pace, reflecting the sense of urgency the executive branch has attached to infrastructure development as a pillar of its economic recovery agenda.
The Sokoto–Badagry Superhighway has long been regarded as one of Nigeria's most critical but chronically delayed transport projects. The entire corridor is expected to cost over ₦13 trillion and will be completed in stages, with the first phase currently targeting completion in 2027. Fifty-two percent of the superhighway passes through the northern region, while the remaining 48 per cent passes through southern states, making it a truly national infrastructure asset.
Backers of the project argue that a functional north-south highway will revolutionise trade between the agrarian northern states and the industrialised southwest, particularly Lagos, the nation's commercial nerve centre. Farmers in the north will gain faster, cheaper access to southern markets, reducing post-harvest losses, while manufacturers in the south will benefit from more reliable and lower-cost logistics chains for raw materials sourced from the north. Port access for both regions will also be significantly improved, enhancing Nigeria's competitiveness in regional and global trade.
Economists, however, have urged caution, stressing that the government must maintain fiscal discipline as debt service obligations continue to consume a growing share of federal revenue. Nigeria's total public debt has exceeded N155 trillion, and the servicing of existing loans already consumes a substantial portion of annual revenue. Senator Aliyu Wamakko's committee is expected to scrutinise the terms of the Deutsche Bank loan for sustainability, transparency, and alignment with the country's broader debt management strategy. A report is anticipated within the week, after which the full Senate will vote on whether to grant approval.
Should the Senate greenlight the request, the loan will be formally included in the Federal Government's borrowing plan, allowing the Ministry of Works to advance procurement and accelerate construction works on the 120-kilometre initial stretch. The development of the Sokoto–Badagry Superhighway is widely seen as a test case of the administration's ability to translate high-level infrastructure pledges into tangible, citizen-visible results ahead of the 2027 election cycle.
Supporters of the project have described the highway as a game-changer for communities along the corridor, predicting it will open up new economic opportunities, cut travel costs for businesses and commuters, and stimulate growth in sectors ranging from agriculture and logistics to hospitality and manufacturing. However, critics have questioned whether the loan's interest rate, set at SOFR plus 5.3 per cent, represents the best possible terms available to the Nigerian government, given its scale as the continent's largest economy. SOFR, or the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, has fluctuated in recent quarters, and the additional 5.3 percentage point premium adds considerable cost to the borrowing.
For now, attention turns to the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts. Its members are expected to engage with officials from the Debt Management Office and the Ministry of Finance to conduct final due diligence before submitting their recommendations. The next few days will be critical in determining whether another major infrastructure financing package can clear the legislative hurdle and move Nigeria's most ambitious north-south corridor a significant step closer to reality.
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