• Public Transport Infrastructural Provision and Utilization in
Nigeria
• Road transportation infrastructure including highways and
rural roads is vital for movement of goods and services
critical to a country’s economic vitality, and has been
recently categorized by many scholars as the most important
engine for economic development (Akhmetzhanoy & Lustoy,
2013; Aschauer, 1989; Njoh, 2012; Peterson & Jesup, 2007).
• Developed countries such as the United States and Great
Britain built the framework of their existing transportation
infrastructures over decades of planning and systematic
investment that reflect economic development envisioned far
into the future.
• This transportation infrastructural foresight in developing
transportation infrastructure has led to increasingly high
levels of innovations at low levels of expenditures toward
construction, maintenance, and management of road
networks.
• The investments of developed countries in road infrastructure
have increased the wealth and power of many of these
nations.
• The movement to develop road networks in the United States
that started between 1890 and 1930, and continued with the
development of the interstate highway, led to an exponential
increase in road networks and spurred periods of
unprecedented economic development that catapulted the
•A developing country such as Nigeria can
learn an important lesson from the
planned investment that the United
States made in its road networks and
interstate highways by linking its
transportation infrastructure planning
and implementation to economic
development activities that lead to
sustainable economic development.
• The United Nations Development Programme
(2009) described Nigeria’s road networks as the
worst and among the deadliest in the world.
• The United Nations Development Programme and
the World Bank (WB) data show that Nigeria has
suffered transportation infrastructure deficit.
• For many developing countries, transportation
infrastructure planning, investment, and
implementation are seen as different from
economic development planning (African
Development Bank [AfDB], 2015).
• This is partially due to the existing colonial era
road infrastructure framework that was planned
without the long view of sustainable economic
development (Njoh, 2012).
• Roads infrastructure serve as the backbone for most
transportation infrastructure in these developing
countries, without the benefits of feasibility studies,
economic studies, and environmental impact
reports that typically accompany transportation
infrastructure planning, investment, and
implementation in the Western world.
• The Evolution of Modern Transport System in Nigeria
• The evolution of modern transport system in the chequered
history of Nigeria can be categorized into two distinct
phases which are: the colonial period and
post-colonial/independent period
• The colonial period which marked the origin of modern
transport system witnessed massive construction of
networks of rail, water and road infrastructure which were
geared essentially to meet the exportation of cash crops,
such as groundnuts, cocoa, cotton and palm products and to
the importation of cheap, mass produced consumption
goods which later proved inadequate to accommodate heavy
vehicles.
•The post-colonial period/attainment of
independence witnessed the development of
petroleum resources from the 1950’s which
had significant impact on the nation’s social
and economic growth, putting increasing
demands on the transport system.
•Transport became one of the instruments of
unification of the country and an important
tool for social and economic development.
Plan Period Plan Size (N Million) Transport Allocation (N Percentage of Total
million) Investment
1962-68 1,586.00 309.09 19%
1970-74 2,050.74 472.40 23%
1975-80 43,318 9,677.00 22%
1981- 70,500.00 10,474.46 15%
• As seen in table 3.1 above, the allocation for
the transport sector within the plan period
increased from 19% to 23% between 1962-
1974.
• This was due to the desire of the Nigerian
Government to improve her road network
immediately after the attainment of
Independence in 1960.
• The allocation to the transport sector declined
again from 22% to 15% between 1975 and 1985
• This was due to competition from other sectors
which also required attention.
• Generally during these plan periods, the country
witnessed some ambitious projects and the
provision of critical infrastructure in the road, rail,
water and air sub sectors.
• However the total allocation to the transport sector
was not substantial for adequate provision of
transport infrastructure needed to meet the
stupendous surge in transport demand due to rapid
growth rate of urbanization in Nigeria.
Table 3.2: Percentage of Intermodal Share in the Transport Sector Investment
Plan Period Road Rail Water Air
1962-68 58.0 10.0 25.0 7.0
1970-74 67.0 9.3 13.0 10.0
1975-80 70.6 9.4 10.0 10.0
1981-85 60.0 25.0 9.0 6.0
•Table 3.2 above shows the percentage share
of different modes of transport in transport
investment during the plan period.
•The investment pattern indicated that the road
sub sector had consistently taken the lion share
of the investment, this was followed by rail,
water and air in a distant second, third and
fourth respectively.
•This aptly explains why the road sub sector is the
dominant mode of transportation in Nigeria.
• It is also important to note that during these plan
periods, all the transport infrastructure were
developing independent of each other thereby
competing rather than complementing each
other.
• There was no linkage and intermodal connections
between the road, rail, water and air transport.
• In a nutshell, Government investment in the country’s
transport system in the past was not substantial.
• All the transport sub-sectors suffered from the effect of
past shortage of resources which had reflected in
inadequate maintenance and has led to the
deterioration of the transport infrastructure.
• At present, the Nigerian transport system functions in a
crisis situation, and one of the principal causes identified
was a major imbalance between the needs of Nigerian
society and economy for adequate transport facilities
and the ability of the transport sector to meet such
demands
•Therefore, the present National Transport
Policy strives to attain maximum realism both
in the identification of the problems and in the
assessment of the means to rectify them.
•The responsibility for planning, developing and
maintaining the nation’s transport
infrastructure is shared among the three tiers
of Government to this end; intra-state roads
are the responsibility of State government.
• The Local Government are required to cater for
intra-urban and rural feeder roads, which account
for over 60% of the existing road network.
• The Federal Government is responsible for the
national highways which constitute only 17% of the
existing road network.
• In addition, the Federal Government through its
Agencies is also responsible for Inland
Waterways/River Ports, Sea Ports, railways,
airports and pipelines.
Country Road Rail Maritime Airport
Malaysia 5.5 5.1 5.4 5.7
South Africa 5 3.8 4.9 6
Turkey 5 3
Table 3.3: Quality of Transport Infrastructure
4.5 5.4
Kenya 4.2 2.8 4.2 4.8
Indonesia 3.9 3.8 3.9 4.5
Ghana 3.5 1.8 3.7 4.
Nigeria 2.6 1.5 2.8 3.2
•From Table 3.3 above, among the seven countries
under review, Nigerian roads and rails were
ranked among the worst while our maritime port
and airport were ranked good in the
Infrastructure Quality Index.
•However with the massive effort of the
Government in critical infrastructure provision
and investment particularly in rail and road it is
expected that the country’s ranking in the
infrastructure quality index will soon improve
from worse to good and good to better.
