Lagos turns to waterways for green transport

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 traveling 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 and EU institutions, the program, known as Omi Eko or Lagos Water in Yoruba language, also aims to tackle carbon emissions with a fleet of electric-powered ferries.

Whereas most Lagosians live on the mainland part of the city, a lot of offices and workplaces are on the islands area, Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lagos Island and Lekki, linked by a series of bridges.

That means road traffic to the islands in the morning and back to the mainland after work can be heavy going. Even a small accident on a bridge or repair work can cause miles of tailback.

Bad roads and flooding during the rainy season coupled with the chaotic fleets of informal "Danfo" minibuses that pack the roads compound the difficulties.

The state government already has...