According to a Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) document titled: INTERFERRY PRESENTATION, which was obtained by the Nigerian Tribune exclusively, only 118 boats out of the 729 ferries operating on the Lagos inland waterways meet the standard requirement expected of passenger boats ferries.

According to the document, out of the 118 standard boats operating on Lagos waterways, 36 belong to the Lagos State owned ferry service company, LAGFERRY while 82 are owned and operated by private boat operators.

The document further revealed that in an effort to improve public waterways transportation, the Lagos State government through LASWA is partnering with the Agence Française de Dévelopement (AFD) Group under a project titled: “Waterways Investment and Development of the Environment in Lagos State” (WIDE-LAG) to meet some of the challenges faced in the water transportation sector.

The WIDE-LAG Project objective is to improve sustainable mobility, quality of life and mitigate climate change impacts in Lagos through the development of public waterways-mass transportation.

The WIDE-LAG Project, which is expected to run from 2023–2030, has evolved into the OMI EKO Project, and is in line with the priorities on adaptation and mitigation of the Climate Action Plan 2020 – 2025 of the Lagos State Government (LASG), the INTERFERRY PRESENTATION document revealed.

The document further revealed that the OMI EKO Project is expected to gulp 410million Euros. A break-down of the sources of the 410m Euros showed that the AFD Group will be providing 130m Euros while the European Investment Bank will be providing 170million Euros.

Also, the European Union will make available 60million Euros while the Lagos State Government will provide a 40m Euros of Counterpart Funding. 10m Euros is expected to come from private sector participation in the Omi Eko project. (Nigerian Tribune)