The Lagos-Badagry Expressway, undergoing rehabilitation and expansion into six lanes, has been targeted for completion by April.

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, disclosed this during an inspection tour of the highway on Thursday.

Mr Umahi said the 46km stretch, the first section of the ECOWAS road to Seme Border and Abidjan, would be ready for inauguration by President Bola Tinubu to commemorate his second year in office.

The minister said the contractor handling the project had been paid N50 billion out of the N71 billion contract sum.

According to him, the contractor has demonstrated a high capacity to deliver the project by the set timeline.

Mr Umahi said: “The contractor has been paid about N50 billion; it means that what is left to complete the job is N21 billion.

“We have scheduled a meeting with the contractor to discuss how to finalise the remaining four to five kilometres before April 20.”

Mr Umahi also said the second section terminating at Seme Border would be done with concrete pavement.

He said a proposition would be made for the border states to complete their sections of the ECOWAS highway project, terminating at Abidjan.

The minister commended the president for working on about 270 inherited projects nationwide.

He said the projects were earmarked for inauguration in May.

The Lagos-Badagry Expressway project was first awarded in October 2018.

(NAN)