Federal government said it would continue to play a crucial role in the sustenance of the activities of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Organisation (ALCO) in facilitating free movement of goods and people among member countries.
The ALCO is an initiative of five coastal African countries of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic and Nigeria established in 2002 with the objectives of prevention, treatment, care and support on HIV/AIDS, as well as facilitation of trade and transport relations in line with the protocols of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The minister of state for transportation, Prince Ademola Adegoroye, who stated this while receiving the secretary-general of ALCO, Idrissa Kone, in his office in Abuja, saluted the vision of the founding fathers of the organisation, stressing that its advantages cannot be over-emphasized.
In a statement by the special assistant on media and publicity to the minister of state for transportation, Prince Ebenezer Adeniyan yesterday, the minister, lauded the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in promoting regional integration in Africa and said Nigeria must do everything possible to sustain and improve on the initiative.
The minister then promised that the federal government will fulfill its outstanding commitments to the organization, urging ALCO to also explore other sources of funding for its activities, especially regular collection of data.
Earlier, Kone said the organisation has recorded a lot of achievements along the corridor in the last 20 years of its existence, especially in the promotion of regional integration among the five member states.
Accompanied by the programme coordinator, Dr Abdel-Aziz Fagbemi, Kone urged the Nigerian government to work towards reducing the number of checkpoints and harassment of people by security agencies along the Nigerian border roads as this has constituted a major challenge to free movement of people and goods.
