Nigeria’s Minister for Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, is a well known politician. When he first hinted of the impending deal between the government and four-member consortium last December, he was generally seen as talking politics. Now that the government and four companies, including General Electric, GE and APM Terminals, have signed an agreement to start the interim phase of the Nigerian narrow-gauge railway concession, it is no longer politics. Yes, the announcement is coming from the private sector.
The Head of Communications, GE Nigeria, Yewande Thorpe, said in a statement that the interim phase will include “light remedial civil and track repair works” on the narrow gauge rail line. She explained that “a joint operation will be established between the consortium and the Nigeria Railway Corporation with a supply of 10 locomotives and 200 wagons provided to augment the existing rolling stock in Nigeria”.
Reports say that the agreement, signed in Washington DC last week, is expected to increase the passenger frequency and the freight haulage capacity from the present 50,000 metric tons per annum to 500,000. The deal was signed at a meeting attended by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, with officials of the GE.
GE and the federal government, through the Ministry of Transportation, have also engaged in talks for the concession of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC)’s 3,400 – kilometer narrow gauge lines.
Other companies involved in the agreement are SinoHydro, an infrastructure construction company and Transnet, a logistics infrastructure management company. The concession agreement, which will be negotiated after the interim phase, will expand the rail service to up to 200 locomotives and rehabilitate the entire rail system.
The Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, described the project as an unprecedented commitment on the part of the Nigerian government, pointing out that apart from modernizing Nigeria’s rail infrastructure, it will add immense value to Nigeria’s long term economic growth and productivity.
