President Tinubu seeks Senate approval for $516 million loan for Sokoto–Badagry Super Highway
via Punch Nigeria3 min read
President Bola Tinubu has requested the Senate's approval for an external loan of $516,333,070 from Deutsche Bank to fund sections of the Sokoto–Badagry Super Highway. This 1,000-kilometer highway is a key infrastructure project under his administration, designed to connect Nigeria's North-West and South-West corridors. The project will traverse Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos states, stretching from Illela to Badagry. It aims to enhance connectivity, economic integration, improve road safety, reduce logistics costs and travel time, facilitate trade, strengthen food security, and promote national integration by linking production zones to markets and ports. The financing structure includes a syndicated loan backed by a partial risk guarantee from the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit, with the Federal Government providing ₦265.5 billion for land acquisition, compensation, and related infrastructure. The loan has a nine-year term, including a grace period of up to three years, and an interest rate benchmarked at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange SOFR plus 5.3 percent per annum. The Federal Executive Council has already approved the financing arrangement. Senate President Godswill Akpabio referred the request to the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts for expeditious review, highlighting the project's economic significance and potential to reduce travel time between Sokoto and Lagos from approximately 13 hours to six h
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This summary was AI-generated from a story originally published by Punch Nigeria.
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The Kano State Hisbah Board has finalized preparations for the medical screening of 3,000 prospective couples participating in the state's mass wedding program. Deputy Commander General Sheikh Mujahedeen Aminudeen announced that the screening will start on Monday, June 8, 2026, across 24 local government areas. The 1,500 female and 1,500 male participants will undergo mandatory health checks for HIV/AIDS, drug use, genotype, hepatitis B, and other sexually transmitted infections like gonorrhoea. This initiative is a collaboration between the Hisbah Board, the Ministry of Health, and the State Agency for the Control of AIDS. Couples have been instructed to report to Hisbah offices in their respective local government areas for the screening, with failure to attend resulting in delisting from the program. Only those who pass the health screening will qualify for the mass wedding. The Kano State Government, led by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, reinstated the mass wedding program to address prostitution and other social vices, particularly among young women whose families cannot afford their marriages.