2023.04.06
In January 2023, the State Government of Lagos, Nigeria announced the result of the bidding for the Fourth Mainland Bridge project. It named the investment consortium of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (“CCECC & CRCC Investment Consortium”) as the winner, which is a milestone for the project.
In 2014, the Federal Government of Nigeria, as the largest economy and the most populous country in Africa, realized the importance of infrastructure for national economic development. It formulated a 30-year National Comprehensive Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP2014-2043), aiming to fill the huge infrastructure gap in the country and ensure sustainable economic growth with an estimated total investment amount of around 2.9 trillion US dollars. China's Belt and Road initiative can assist Nigeria's National Comprehensive Infrastructure Master Plan. The Belt and Road initiative can resolve the deficit of Nigeria's transport infrastructure and help Chinese enterprises as private sectors participate in Nigeria's infrastructure construction by way of public-private partnerships. The Belt and Road initiative can achieve its goals in developing transport infrastructure such as railway centers, port transportation hubs and aviation centers in West Africa as soon as possible.
The Fourth Mainland Bridge project planned by the State government of Lagos, Nigeria is a public-private partnership (PPP) transport infrastructure development project. This project was first proposed in 2006 as a core infrastructure project by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the State Government of Lagos. Due to problems in finding the best route through this densely populated city, the project was temporarily put on hold. Thanks to the National Comprehensive Infrastructure Master Plan, the Fourth Mainland Bridge project in Lagos has been put back on the agenda. The bridge will have a total length of approximately 37 kilometers and, upon completion, will be the longest mainland bridge in Africa to date. As a local livelihood project in Nigeria, the completion of this project will greatly alleviate the traffic pressure in the Lagos and Lekki urban areas, promote economic growth in the state of Lagos, and improve the living standards of the local people.
In this project, JunHe acted as the legal advisor for CCECC & CRCC Investment Consortium, participated in the bidding and throughout the entire process of the project. We assisted the client in drafting and preparing bidding documents, including but not limited to reviewing and modifying concession agreements and other project related agreements, organizing local lawyers to discuss the transaction structure of Nigeria's public-private partnership project, cooperating with professional advisors such as financial and tax advisors, and answering relevant legal questions. Finally, the client stood out from the 52 bidders thanks to our efficient and professional legal services.
The lead partner of this project was QIN, Yu (Bill), and the participating partners were QIN, Yu (Bill), CONG, Qing and DU, Lijing.
