President Muhammadu Buhari has won the 2021 Great Builder Super Prize, the Babacar Ndiaye Trophy.
Gatekeepers News reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has been named the winner of the 2021 Great Builder Super Prize, the Babacar Ndiaye Trophy.
Buhari was named the winner during the inaugural Africa Road Builders Conference held in Cairo.
President Buhari succeeded his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi who was the winner of the 2020 prize.
The Nigerian President received the award “for his personal leadership and for the efforts made to ensure road safety and the health of the population in the context of transport”.
The selection committee cited Nigeria’s efforts to improve road safety and air quality for road users and commended its efforts to obtain COVID-19 vaccines and for advancing major transport projects, specifically in the rail sector, which will ensure the optimal operation of roads and transport.
He is to receive the trophy on 24 June as a side-line of the African Development Bank’s Annual Meetings.
The central theme of this year’s conference was “Roads and Transport for Health: Actions and Achievements to Meet Africa’s Challenges”.
The conference was chaired by the Egyptian Minister of Transport, Kamel Elwazeer, represented by the Chairman of the Egyptian Roads and Bridges Authority, Mustafa El-Din Hossam.
Participants who presented their papers at the conference include: an economist from Guinea Bissau who chairs the Africa Road Builders Conference Bureau, Carlos Lopes; the Senegalese Road Maintenance Fund, Representatives of Afreximbank, and the National Bureau of Technical Studies of Côte d’Ivoire also made presentations.
The Babacar Ndiaye Africa Road Builders Award is organised by Acturoutes, an information platform on infrastructure and roads in Africa.
Acturoutes is also a media for Infrastructure and Finance in Africa (MIFA), a network of African journalists who specialises in road infrastructure.
Gatekeepers News gathered that the African Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina sponsors the award.
The award was created in honour of the President of the African Development Bank Group from 1985 to 1995, Babacar Ndiaye.
The selection committee of the award comprises media representatives from the five regions of the continent who depend on media reports and experts on road networks, transport, and sustainable development.
Each year, the Africa Road Builders selection committee carefully examines ambitious and tangible projects that have impacted the mobility of people in Africa.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, was also recognised for his work to improve the quality of life of his people. These include the extension of the port of Damietta and the restoration of the Tanta-Mansourah-Damietta railway line as well as the Heliopolis metro station and the suspension bridge over the Nile.
