Nigeria’s Minister of Works, David Umahi, has defended the cost of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, arguing that the project is cheaper than comparable road projects in Nigeria and internationally when its specifications and difficult terrain are taken into account.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE News Anchor Ojy Okpe, Umahi rejected criticism of the highway’s cost, saying comparisons should be based on equivalent carriageways and engineering specifications rather than simply dividing the contract sum by the length of the road.
“I deserve kudos for the cost of the coastal highway,” Umahi said as he compared the project with other major road developments.
Using Section One of the highway as an example, the minister said the 47.47-kilometre stretch from Victoria Island to Eleko Village had a contract value of about ₦1.06 trillion, but argued that the figure had to be assessed against the number of carriageways and the extensive infrastructure included in the project.
He said that when the cost was normalised to a standard two-lane carriageway, it amounted to approximately ₦7.3 billion to ₦7.5 billion per kilometre, or about $5.5 million at the exchange rate he used in his calculation.
Umahi argued that the figure compared favourably with other major road projects, including the Bodo-Bonny Road, the East-West Road and coastal road projects elsewhere in West Africa.
“You have to compare apple to apple,” he said, insisting that comparisons which ignored differences in road width, pavement type, bridges, drainage and terrain created a misleading impression of the project’s cost.
The minister said the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway was being constructed with reinforced concrete pavement and would include solar lighting, underground drainage, two-metre walkways, crash barriers and a corridor reserved for a railway line.
He also pointed to the extensive ground improvement required along the Lagos section, saying that approximately 30 kilometres involved the removal of unsuitable material to an average depth of about 10 metres, while the road level had to be raised by an average of about five metres.
“You remove the pit, average of 10 metres, and then you fill it back,” Umahi said, describing the engineering work required before the pavement itself could be constructed.
He said those features needed to be factored into any meaningful comparison of the project’s cost with conventional highways built on less challenging terrain.
Umahi also cited the changing cost of construction materials, saying the price of concrete had increased significantly since the contract was awarded without a corresponding increase in the contract price.
“When we started, concrete was ₦350,000 per cubic metre. Today, it is ₦460,000 per cubic metre,” he said. “The contract price has not changed.”
The Works Minister compared the Coastal Highway with the Bodo-Bonny Road in Rivers State, as well as portions of the East-West Road, arguing that their costs demonstrated that the Lagos-Calabar project was not unusually expensive when assessed on equivalent engineering terms.
His defence follows sustained public scrutiny of the project’s cost. Umahi has previously argued that the price approved for the Coastal Highway was lower than comparable projects and has repeatedly disputed calculations based on a simple cost-per-kilometre formula.
In October 2025, he publicly challenged Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde to a debate after the governor questioned his explanation of the project’s cost.
Umahi said international financiers had also scrutinised the project’s pricing before committing funding to it.
He said Deutsche Bank, which led the financing for Section One, examined the project before the financing was syndicated and reached a favourable assessment of its pricing and construction quality.
“They said the project was underpriced,” Umahi said, adding that the financing was subsequently “oversubscribed by $100 million.”
Umahi has previously made the oversubscription claim publicly, saying international financial institutions regarded the project’s cost as competitive.
He maintained that the cost of one section could not simply be extrapolated across the full 750-kilometre highway because terrain and engineering requirements vary significantly along the route.
“There are no two sections that are the same,” Umahi said, arguing that bridges, soil conditions and other engineering requirements would ultimately determine the cost of individual sections.
The minister insisted that when those factors were considered alongside the highway’s specifications, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway represented value for money rather than the excessively priced project portrayed by its critics.
Demola Ojo
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