{"id":32863,"date":"2026-04-23T18:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=32863"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:00:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:00:55","slug":"nigerias-president-seeks-parliaments-approval-for-516-million-highway-loan","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigerias-president-seeks-parliaments-approval-for-516-million-highway-loan\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria&#8217;s President seeks parliament&#8217;s approval for $516 million highway loan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has asked parliament to approve a $516 \u200bmillion foreign loan to help finance the \u200cfirst sections of a new national highway, a major transport corridor linking the country&#8217;s northwest to \u200bits southwest.<\/div>\n<div>\nIn a letter read by \u200bthe Senate&#8217;s President during a plenary session \u2060on Thursday, Tinubu said the government was \u200bseeking approval for the syndicated financing facility from \u200bDeutsche Bank, adding the loan was part of the government&#8217;s medium-term borrowing plan approved by lawmakers.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The loan \u200bwould have a nine-year tenor, including up \u200bto three years&#8217; grace, Tinubu said in the letter.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The \u200croughly \u20601 000-km (600-mile) highway will link Sokoto state, in Nigeria&#8217;s northwest, through the central Niger and Kwara states to the coastal town of Badagry \u200bin Lagos, \u200bthe commercial \u2060capital.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Tinubu said the highway would deepen north\u2013south links, cut travel times \u200band haulage costs, lift trade and \u200bfood \u2060security, and bolster national integration.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Last year, Nigeria raised a $747 million syndicated loan, led by Deutsche \u2060Bank, \u200bto fund the first \u200bphase of a planned 700-km (435-mile) coastal highway.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23979,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-32863","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Tinubu said the highway would deepen north\u2013south links.","published_date":"","news_description":"Tinubu said the highway would deepen north\u2013south links.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32868,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32863\/revisions\/32868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}