Abidjan-Lagos freeway will get governing board

The Financial Group of West African States and the African Improvement Financial institution Group held a two-day orientation and knowledge session in Abidjan to induct the 10-member Board of Administrators of the Abidjan-Lagos Hall Administration Authority.

The session, held on 19 and 20 February 2026, kinds a part of the operational rollout of the Authority following the board’s official swearing-in in December 2025 through the twenty second Ministerial Steering Committee assembly of the Abidjan-Lagos Hall Freeway Improvement Venture.

Stretching 1,028 kilometres, the Abidjan-Lagos Hall Freeway is envisioned as a transformative regional infrastructure linking 5 West African economies and serving as a key industrial and commerce driver by 2030.

Individuals had been launched to the Hall Treaty, which units out the mission’s imaginative and prescient, supranational standing, and strategic goals endorsed by the Heads of State of the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

 The programme additionally reviewed findings from technical research of the deliberate freeway, alongside shows on commerce and transport facilitation, spatial improvement initiatives, worth chains, logistics techniques, and anchor financial hub initiatives.

Board members examined the institutional and authorized framework governing the hall mission, together with the treaty, intergovernmental agreements, and draft worldwide devices establishing each the freeway and its administration authority.

The Board additionally undertook an preliminary evaluation of its guidelines of process, constitution, and the recruitment course of for the Director-Basic, directors, and technical workers.

Main the ECOWAS delegation, Director of Transport Chris Appiah underscored the significance of the built-in financial hall mannequin that mixes infrastructure improvement with commerce facilitation and socio-economic development. He urged stakeholders “to spare no effort to make this mission a actuality within the close to future”, noting {that a} seamless cross-border freeway would speed up the area’s improvement.

Director for the Infrastructure and City Improvement Division on the African Improvement Financial institution Group, Mike Salawou, recommended ECOWAS and taking part nations for operationalising the Authority and reaffirmed the financial institution’s function as mandated lead arranger.

He stated the financial institution would work alongside the ECOWAS Financial institution for Funding and Improvement and different companions to mobilise financing for the mission. “Our fellow residents are ready for us to maneuver alongside this hall, to hold out their socioeconomic actions and to facilitate commerce in our sub-region,” he said.

The African Improvement Financial institution Group mobilised about €600m for the mission, leveraging further help from the Japan Worldwide Cooperation Company and the World Surroundings Facility, which contributed €103m and €6.4m, respectively.