Nigeria: Lagos turns to waterways to combat traffic congestion - Video
Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city with upwards of 20 million inhabitants is now looking at boats as a viable solution to the hours-long traffic jams that commuters face daily.
Residents of the urban city, a major economic hub in Africa are increasingly opting for water transport to save time.
Ivy Junaid, a Lagos commuter, shared her experience, saying, "Having to wake up at four am like you don’t have a home and having to rush out and still got stuck in traffic or having to get to work and sleep in your car, but with the boat, you don’t need that. You actually get out of bed when you need to, you have breakfast at home, strut in here, strut into the boat and 30 minutes across the water you’re on the other side, it’s way easier."
The Lagos State Waterways Authority (LSWA) is spearheading efforts to enhance water transport in the city. According to Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, the General Manager of the authority, there is a plan underway to massively and the waterway transport system and triple the number of boat passengers. The goal is to increase “water transportation from about 2% to almost about 10%,” he told AFP.
Lagos, which is in southwestern Nigeria served as Nigeria’s national capital until the government relocated it to Abuja in the centre of the country in December 1991.
