Lagos – Mombasa Corridor

Transport corridors can generate both wider economic benefits and costs through their effects on
diverse development course. As Africa introduces Continental Free Trade Area covering the entire
African Union, the most expensive market in the world. The simplification of border controls and the
drop in duties and other costs like tolls are seen giving a 52% boost to trade on the continent to
$35billion in five years. This expected surge in economic activity is also seen encouraging
investments in roads, railways and other infrastructure for countries to deal with each other. One of
the pieces of infrastructure is the Trans-African Highway, the largest although unfinished project the
continent has harboured for nearly half a century. One of the 10 Trans-African Highway is the Lagos-
Mombasa Highway.

The Lagos – Mombasa Trans African Highway 8 provides a road connection between the ports of
Nigeria and Cameroon in West Africa and the East African port of Mombasa. The flow of traffic along
this highway and the condition of different sections of the road reflects the limited trade between
West and East Africa. The highway has a total length of about 6260 km of which about 54% is paved
in various conditions, with the remainder as either gravel or earth. The main importance of the
highway is that it provides the most direct connection to Mombasa for Uganda and the most
convenient road connection to the port for Rwanda, Burundi and eastern DR Congo

The objective of the highway was mainly to enable smooth movement of cargo from the Port of
Mombasa and in the countries through which the road passes and to draft principles and methods
for effective intra-African co-operation in the construction of international highways. The road
passes through six countries 737km in Nigeria, 1044km in Cameroon, 1319km in the Central African
Republic, 1561km in DR Congo, 740km in Uganda and 1100km in Kenya. There are numerous missing
links in the network where tracks are impassable after rain or hazardous due to rocks, sand, and
sandstorms. In a few cases, there has never been a road of any sort, such as the 200 km gap
between Salo in the  Centra African Republic and Ouesso in the Republic of the Congo on highway 3.
Other bottlenecks hampering the project are inadequate funding for road maintenance and
upgrades as well as insecurity due to civil conflicts.