President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has assured that the Apapa
Port Wharf concrete road currently under construction by his company,
AG Dangote would be delivered on schedule to save the people and
businesses the hassles of the traffic gridlock being experienced now.
He gave the assurance yesterday when he visited the construction area
in company with the Managing Director of the AG Dangote Construction
Company, Mr Ashif Juma, to assess the extent of work done.
The Apapa Port road which is the artery of the nation’s non-oil
economy, has been in a state of disrepair over a long period of time
with experts claiming that the nation is losing about N20 billion daily
owing to the state of dilapidation of the road as imports are trapped in
the ports for days as a result of traffic gridlock generated by the bad
road.
Dangote Group, a pan African Conglomerate and a major stakeholder at
the ports brokered a tripartite arrangement with Flour Mills, a leading
Nigerian Food Company and Nigerian Port Authority, (NPA), taking over
the road from the Federal Government and undertaking the reconstruction
of the road into a lasting concrete pavement as part of their Corporate
Social Responsibility.
The road construction in which both NPA and Flour Mills have
financial outlay as their contributions while AG Dangote Construction, a
subsidiary of the Dangote Group, is undertaking the construction, is to
cost the three partners N4.3 billion Dangote said the road will be
completed in few months’ time and that Nigerians would be surprised to
see the project delivered even before scheduled, saying efforts are
being redoubled by his company to ensure quality job and timely
completion.
According to him: by the time the road construction is completed,
even some of the advanced countries would not be able to boast of the
quality.”
He explained that what actually delay the take-off of the project was
the gas pipeline that has to be relocated to pave the way for
unfettered construction work “and having done that, you could see that
the work is progressing at a very fast speed.”
The businessman while relying on the reports of the challenges
encountered by the site engineers appealed to the authorities to help
see to the disturbing issue of multiple check points being mounted by
security agencies and which have been creating long queues of trailers
and thus affecting free flow of work on the road project.
He also explained that his company has agreed with the federal
government to do some palliatives on the Mile2 expressway road to ease
the traffic congestion and ensure free flow of vehicular movement.
Dangote stated that the road was very strategic because Apapa and Tin
Can Island ports handle about 80 per cent of the cargo that come into
Nigeria and the condition of the road has made nonsense of businesses
depending on the ports efficient operations.
He said that he more worried about the fate of small businesses and
other port users that have imported cargo and whose charges are
accumulating every day.
Mr. Juma took Dangote and his team round the construction area and
showed him how they have been following the designs handed over to his
company.
Speaking in similar vein, Group Managing Director of Flour Mills, Mr.
Paul Gbededo, said the three partners have shown how to be good
corporate citizens saying by the time the road project is completed it
would be one never seen before in the country.
Aliko Dangote assures on timely completion of Apapa road
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has assured that the Apapa Port Wharf concrete road currently under construction by his company,