Nigeria’s Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, in a recent announcement, has detailed the tolling strategy for the upcoming Lagos-Calabar coastal road, indicating that travelers should expect to pay an average of N3,000 per toll gate.
Umahi disclosed this during an interview on Channels Television, where he provided insights into the anticipated revenue generation from the tolling system.
He explained, “Let me leave out the infrastructure along the corridor. Let me just concentrate on the tolls and I put 50,000 vehicles as an average passage on these toll points per day,” adding that the average fee considers different vehicle types, “I put N3,000 as an average cost. N3,000 because the cars could be like N1,500, and the big trucks could be like N5,000. So, we put an average.”
Umahi projected a 15-year timeline for recouping the project’s costs through these tolls, dispelling concerns about the high initial budget.
“In 15 years, you make back the money,” he stated.
Further enhancing the toll gate experience, the former Ebonyi governor mentioned that each tolling point will feature essential services and security measures, including “a kind of relief activities: the restaurants, filling stations, parking lots, and so on and so forth.”
He also assured future road users of heightened security with the installation of CCTV systems across the toll stations, aiming to bolster traveler confidence.