Within the lengthy arc of Nigeria’s improvement story, few themes recur as persistently—and as problematically—as infrastructure. Damaged roads, dysfunctional ports, stalled railways, and bottlenecked city sprawl have lengthy outlined a nation wealthy in potential however hamstrung by logistics. But below President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, now two years into workplace, Nigeria could also be witnessing some of the bold infrastructure build-outs since independence. The dimensions is huge, the ambition staggering, and the stakes impossibly excessive.
“The federal government should not solely construct but additionally preserve and institutionalise supply methods that outlast particular person administrations.”
By the second anniversary of his presidency, over 440 highway initiatives are underway throughout the nation. Amongst them are headline grabbers: the 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Freeway and the 1,058-kilometre Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway. These aren’t simply political trophies—they characterize a structural reimagining of Nigeria’s transport grid. The logic is straightforward however profound: cut back the associated fee and time of shifting items and folks, and also you unlock productiveness and commerce. However infrastructure is rarely nearly concrete and asphalt; it’s about nationwide cohesion, financial competitiveness, and the sort of long-term considering that defies political cycles.
Past roads, Nigeria is making daring strikes in rail. The long-abandoned Port Harcourt–Aba rail line has resumed business operations, a uncommon second of continuity in Nigeria’s continuously erratic rail sector. The Abuja Mild Rail system, as soon as derided as a white elephant, has additionally returned to life, offering city mobility to the capital’s residents. In the meantime, the Benin–Asaba Superhighway and the Calabar–Abuja specific hall are being designed to attach business cities with inland hubs, opening up inside markets which have lengthy remained underutilised.
All of that is being coordinated below a central platform—the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Improvement Fund (RHIDF). In contrast to previous makes an attempt, which had been typically fragmented and underfunded, RHIDF seeks to harmonise funding, undertaking monitoring, and implementation below one programmatic construction. The hope is to keep away from the same old pitfalls: contractor abandonment, bureaucratic delays, and price overruns.
But financing stays a large hurdle. Nigeria’s 2025 federal finances of ₦54.99 trillion—its largest ever—allocates important capital to infrastructure, however debt servicing nonetheless consumes a big share of presidency income. Multilateral assist, such because the current $1 billion facility from Afreximbank, and personal sector co-financing fashions just like the Public-Non-public Partnership (PPP) for the 125 km Benin–Asaba highway, are essential. Nonetheless, large-scale infrastructure in Nigeria has hardly ever escaped the gravity of debt or the politics of rent-seeking.
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For now, the federal government seems prepared to endure short-term fiscal stress in alternate for long-term features. That calculus could show clever. In accordance with logistics business estimates, the typical price of highway transport in Nigeria is sort of double the continental common. Decreasing that price, even marginally, might unlock billions in financial worth throughout agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce. The 42,000 metric tonnes of grain launched this yr to counter meals inflation would transfer way more effectively—and spoil much less continuously—if roads connecting Nigeria’s meals belts to city centres had been reliable.
Infrastructure additionally acts as a signalling device. It’s an outward signal to buyers {that a} authorities is severe about enterprise facilitation. In 2024 alone, over $50 billion in overseas direct funding (FDI) commitments had been recorded, a lot of it linked to logistics, vitality, and extractive infrastructure. When corporations make billion-dollar choices on the place to find factories or course of minerals, roads, rails, and ports are usually not perks—they’re conditions.
Critics argue that focusing closely on new builds whereas neglecting upkeep of current infrastructure is a recipe for repeating previous errors. Additionally they query the transparency of procurement processes and the danger of politicisation, particularly with the 2027 elections on the horizon. These are legitimate considerations. The federal government should not solely construct but additionally preserve and institutionalise supply methods that outlast particular person administrations.
Apparently, the geography of infrastructure below Tinubu displays a rising consciousness of nationwide fairness. Up to now, main capital initiatives clustered in just a few areas. At this time, infrastructure initiatives span all six geopolitical zones, from the 421 km Akwanga–Jos–Bauchi–Gombe hall to the Sokoto-Badagry superhighway. The purpose appears clear: rewire the nation not only for effectivity however for unity.
This imaginative and prescient of an built-in Nigeria—the place a dealer in Aba can transfer items to Kano with out days of delay, or a tech hub in Akure can reliably connect with the Lagos port—is just not romantic optimism. It’s financial realism. No nation has industrialised with out infrastructure. No digital financial system can thrive with out bodily connectivity. And no inhabitants of 220 million folks may be adequately served by a crumbling, congested logistics grid.
The duty forward is to institutionalise this momentum. The RHIDF should grow to be greater than a slogan. Mission monitoring, data-driven auditing, and unbiased efficiency evaluations should observe. Native capability have to be constructed, not simply imported by overseas contractors. Lastly, transparency and citizen engagement should underpin all this. Roads and rails constructed with out accountability could transfer vans and trains, however they’ll by no means carry belief.
As Nigeria steps deeper into its third yr below Tinubu, the infrastructure query is now not whether or not the nation can afford to construct. The actual query is whether or not it may possibly afford to not.
Dr. Oluyemi Adeosun, Chief Economist, BusinessDay Media
