Nigerias Lagos turns to waterways for green transport solution [Video]

Nigerian saleswoman Ivy Junaid says her daily half-an-hour commute from mainland Lagos to the city’s island business district has changed her life.

What was once often a three-hour nightmare drive to work with a pre-dawn start and gnarly traffic has become a quick sprint skimming across the waters of Lagos lagoon by boat.

“You can 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,” the telecoms employee said.

“It’s really a life-saving situation for most of us.”

Flanked by lagoon waters and the Atlantic Ocean, Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos has long used its waterways as an alternative to the megacity’s chaotic roads.

But soon more commuters like Junaid in the city of 20 million could be travelling by boat under plans to massively expand waterway transport and multiply passenger numbers.

With an around 410-million-euro ($455-million) investment from France’s AFD development agency …