According to the federal government, a 700-kilometer railway line has been completed and is now used for commercial purposes within the country.
Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the length was part of a 5000km to 6000km journey that the current administration planned to take.
The Abuja-Kaduna Railway, the Itape-Warri, and the Lagos-Ibadan Railway are among the projects that have been finished, according to him.
Over N1 billion has been put into a designated account as the ministry’s contribution to repaying part of the loan obtained for the rail projects, according to the minister.
”We have awarded a contract to three more companies if you add these ones I have mentioned and one is 225km Itape-Warri.
”The one from Lagos to Ibadan is 156km, then the one from Abuja-Kaduna is about 186km, so close to 700km of rail completed and carrying out commercial activities.
”Within this period as the minister, we have never paid money to the government but we got to the Ministry of Finance and asked them to open an account where we pay money every month as our contribution for repayment of the loan.
”And I think we have gotten over N1 billion already in the last few months.
”Every month that we pay, we can return close to N200million per month,” Amaechi said.
He stated that the Federal Government was already in the process of negotiating new facilities for the construction of the train from Ibadan to Kano.
‘We haven’t finalized the financing negotiations with China, but we have started the building of Kano to Kaduna from the budget, not the loan.’
“So that the Chinese can lend us money at any moment, we know it would be from Ibadan to Abuja, but for the time being, we have done Abuja to Kaduna, and we are currently doing Kaduna to Kano.”
According to NAN, the transportation sector was allocated about N205 billion in the budget for 2022.
According to the Federal Government, the money is to help address the huge rail infrastructure deficit in Nigeria since the last 30 years and the last six years have been a top priority of President Muhammadu Buhari‘s administration.
The transportation sector was one of the recipients of a N1.45 trillion important sectorial allocation in the budget for the year 2022.
A total of N71.67 billion in counterpart financing was granted to six ongoing rail projects across the country, with more than N4 billion going to track restoration.
NAN
