Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited, the concessionaire of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway may collect between N100 and N200 as

, tolls after the reconstruction of the 30 years old 105 kilometre road.
The road has been handed over to Bi-Courtney by the Federal Government under an agreement of Design-Build-Operate and Transfer(DBTO), while the company is expected to recoup its investment in 25 years.
The company, which would meet with the officials of the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban development to fix the toll, is not expected to ask for anything less than 30% premium on the N89.53 billion it is committing to the project.
Business Hallmark investigations reveal that a 30% premium on the N89.53 billion being committed to the project would take the amount recoverable by Bi-Courtney to N116.4 billion in 25 years.
A breakdown of the N116.4 billion in 25 years will produce N4.66 billion recoverable annually by Bi- Courtney through the toll gates to be constructed on the Expressway.
Therefore with N4.66 billion recoverable in 365 days, the company is to expect about N12.76 million as toll everyday during the 25 years it is to operate the Expressway.
Business Hallmark further findings from the office of the Federal Road Safety Commission(FRSC) at Ojodu, Berger, Lagos reveal that between 90,000 and 100,000 vehicles ply the either side of the busy road everyday.
The FRSC official who spoke to Business Hallmark noted that what the commission has is an estimate of the users of the road, adding that no counting machine functions on the road at present.
A further breakdown of the toll collectable daily shows that each of the 100,000 vehicles would be expected to part with N128 per trip, on the average, on the Expressway.
However, while small vehicles are expected to pay less, articulated vehicles and luxury buses would pay more to compensate for the heavy loads they would be carrying. This has been the practice in Nigeria in the past when toll plazas were in operation.
Therefore, while small vehicles might be paying between N100 and N150, heavy-duty vehicles should not expect any toll less than N200.
Other sources of revenue which would be a bonus for the company are Advertising, Bill and Promotional boards which companies are using to promote their products.
Speaking with Business Hallmark on the funding arrangement for the project, Gbenga Odugbesan, Corparate Communications Manager, Bi-Courtney, said” funding for the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is going to come both from offshore and local banks. Don't forget that the promoters of Bi-Courtney consortium are people of substance who on their own can inject so much funds into the project.”
According to him, “ Bi-Courtney has some viable businesses that can also be investors in this particular project. We have also received overtures from within and outside Nigeria because people have seen what we have done at MMA2 and they know we can do it again. It is not a question of money waiting out there for anybody to come and pick but it is a matter of ingenuity.
He noted that the company would be creative in its handling of the project which is expected to break new grounds in the Public-Private-Partnership in the country.
“ We are going to be creative and innovative. Don't forget that banks are very much interested in any venture where their loan will be performing and they are sure they will get their money back and pay interest on deposits, run their banks and pay staff. When they see it is a viable venture managed by people who are tested and trusted, they will be willing to put in their money,” Odugbesan declared.
On the percentage of the funding to be sourced from the off-shore sources, he said “there is no issue of percentage now because all the options will have to be put on the table and carefully looked at. So many issues are involved when you are sourcing funds, it is not a straight forward thing, its not like okay, since ADB has offered N90 billion, let's pick it and go, so many conditions are attached to loans ; so you have to look at all these factors. The construction is a long term thing. It is not something we will jump on the road today and finish tomorrow.
“In the first few months of the construction of the road, we are going to gain the right of way. There are so many structures on the way and it makes the road very busy, so we have to reclaim it from trespassers. And we have to work with government because the land belongs to the federal government and so we have to work with government in this regard. You cannot do any construction where you have houses and filling stations. We need to reclaim the right of way and that is going to take us some time.”
He explained further that “ the primary source of revenue on the road is going to be toll. And according to the concessioning agreement, Bi-Courtney is not going to fix the toll. We are going to work with Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development to arrive at appropriate toll. Since that has not yet been fixed, it is difficult for me to say this is the revenue we expect. We are also going to also explore non-toll avenues for revenue like advertising, right of way and the rest. The land on which the road was built is owned by three states; Lagos, Ogun and Oyo, so we have to meet with stakeholders to sort these issues out.”
Structure expected to be affected by the construction work on the Expressway include many religious houses with Mountain of Fire Ministry in Lagos and Guru Mahrajji's Temple in Ibadan likely to suffer the most.
The highway is home to many churches and Islamic praying grounds such as Deeper Life, Mountain of Fire, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Celestial church of Christ, Assemblies of God and NASFAT among others.
Business Hallmark learnt that the road on completion would boast of world-class facilities with eight lanes from Lagos to Sagamu Inter-change and six lanes from Sagamu Inter-change to Ibadan.
Pedestrian bridges and Fly-overs are also expected to be constructed in areas such as Ibafo, Mowe, the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Mountain of Fire entrances.



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I am not feeling bad about the company or the kind of work they will do, neither am I against the toll fees, but my concern is the number of years for these contracts. People are just sucking us dry, under the guise of Privatisation. I weep for this country .

It's not unusual though.  There is correlation between the length of the concession and the average toll.  If you want a shorter concession, the private operator will be allowed to recoup his cost plus any profit element over that shorter period meaning higher average tolls.  Which one you want?

Anyway, I would have thought your experience with the road so far is enough to wish it never return to Govt. management.

Does anyone know if there are minimum traffic guarantees in the concession?  It will be unusual not to have that and most banks (foreign ones at least) may be reluctant to lend to the project.  Let me explain: The private operator says we are paying this fee and taking over the road for 25 years under the assumption we get a minimum of X cars passing through per year. If the number of cars is less than X for whatever reason (eg, economic downturn, Govt. builds another expressway or high speed railway line alongside) then the Govt. compensates them.

Enjoyment1:

I am not feeling bad about the company or the kind of work they will do, neither am I against the toll fees, but my concern is the number of years for these contracts. People are just sucking us dry, under the guise of Privatisation. I weep for this country .

i would be happier if the monies collected as tolls are devoted to maintenance. In a 25 year span, we should expect that with the heavy vehicular usage on this road, pavement failures will need to be fixed every four years. Can they assure us that this will be the case?

please let us be grateful at least that we will be getting good roads,left to the government people will still be dying on that road for years to come while we r complaining and moaning,if the 100 naira will mean i can live in ibadan and work in lagos,or that i can make lagos to ibadan in about 35-45 minutes then it is value for money for me,let them privatise other infrastructures as well so that we can at least have the choice maybe sucessive government s can them start to talk about how fair the concessions are

"I would be happier if the monies collected as tolls are devoted to maintenance. In a 25 year span, we should expect that with the heavy vehicular usage on this road, pavement failures will need to be fixed every four years. Can they assure us that this will be the case? "

"PAVEMENT FAILURES" four years is so little to be talking about pavement failures, Nothing stops our so called called contractors from constructing a road that will last for the next 10~15 years before any repair of any form, We need to go to countries like South Africa and see how their roads is being constructed, then you will know that the incessant allocation for road repair every 4years will lead to another way of embezzling govt. funds
The N1 in South Africa is virtually the busiest road in Africa and ranked btw 1~10 in the world, yet travelling all around south Africa's on N1 you will never find a damaged section, Why? the foundation of it is a reinforced concrete with thickness up to a feet into the ground. So tell me why will such road not last 20yrs even with heavy flow of traffic,

a real shame the babalakin guy is yet to undertake any serious works since he signed the concession