Beautiful Nigeria: First Niger Bridge, Anambra State

The first Niger Bridge, linking Onitsha and Asaba, was completed in 1965 and built by the French construction company, Dumez.

The Niger is the third longest river in Africa after the Nile and the Congo. It moves 7,000 Cubic meter per second water at Onitsha, which is more than a hundred times as much as the Thames in London and almost three times as much as the Missouri river before reaching St. Louis.

The Niger also separates Nigeria’s populous southwest from the oil-rich southeast. The current only bridge at Onitsha, a 1960s steel truss structure with two lanes, is overloaded, due in no small part to the fact that it must accommodate flying traders, handcart drivers, cargo-carrying people and the occasional herd of goats in addition to (and between) cars.

In fact, there are already seven major bridges over the Niger in Nigeria alone (not to mention in countries like Niger or Benin).