The Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC’s history can be traced to 1898 when the first rail line in Nigeria was started by British colonialists with the construction of Baro-Kano railway line on October 3, 1912.
NRC recorded revenues of N2.12bn in the first half of 2021 showing an increase of 31% over the same period in 2019. Revenue from freight transport was down with gains coming mainly from passenger transport between Lagos and Ibadan on the new standard gauge line.
NRC operates a network of 3,505km of single track lines in the country and also operates another 3,505km Cape Gauge network consisting of Lagos-Agege-Ifaw-Ibadan-Ilorin-Minna-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano; Ifaw-Ilaro, Minna-Baro, Zaria-Kaura Namoda, Kano-Nguru, Kaduna-Kafanchan-Kuru-Bauchi-Maiduguri, Kuru-Jos and Kafanchan-Makurdi-Enugu-Port Harcourt.
Under construction is the 2, 044Km Eastern Rail Line from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri since March 9, 2021 with construction activities including renovation or reconstruction of existing lines along with new branch lines to Owerri and Damaturu and scheduled for completion in 2024.
Funding for the Lagos-Calabar rail line along the Nigerian coast to be built under Chinese management was released in early 2021 but construction appears to be delayed till after general election in 2023.
In February 2021, construction began on a cape-gauge link from Kano-Maradi, the second-largest city in Niger Republic under the auspices of Portugal’s Mota-Engil SGPS SA, with planned inauguration in 2023 will be one of the first rail lines in Niger.
The oldest 217km standard-gauge from Oturkpo-Ajaokuta steel mill resumed while an earlier line operated between the 51.5km standard gauge line of Itakpe mines- Ajaokuta steel mill and the Warri-Itakpe Railway was officially opened by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Railway transportation is globally seen as an environmentally-friendly mode of mass transit system, hence, many countries have continued to take steps to enhance the efficiency of their rail transportation industry.
In Nigeria, efforts at reviving the railway transportation system have seen the adoption of two managerial options: public-private partnership, PPP by concession, and public financing and management.
Indeed poor management is one of the principal factors that had affected the performance of the railway industry in the country.
Regretably, NRC has said that the Corporation barely earns up to N1.7m per day, it uses about 24,000 litres of diesel daily for the Lagos-Ibadan route, amounting to about N4 million daily. This was before services were suspended in March this year after the Abuja-Kaduna train attack by terrorists.
Revenue generation was further pushed down because of the high cost of diesel to run its locomotive engines across the country.
The Managing Director of NRC had said that the Abuja-Kaduna train bombing has seriously affected its business as NRC was hitting N450m monthly on that line.
Determined to grow the nation’s transportation sector, the Federal Ministry of Transportation has resolved to see to the enactment of the National Transport Commission, NTC Bill before the end of this administration on May 29th next year.
Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, Minister of transportation did tell journalists on the sideline of World Maritime Day that the ministry will ensure that the country gets a transport policy that would lead to ‘development and competitiveness’ in the rail transport sector.
In the words of the Minister, ‘the ministry would also like to see to the unbundling of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC as there was a committee set up by the past Minister of Transport to look into the unbundling of the NRC.’
What is interesting is that government has committed itself to “unbundling NRC” despite the fact that like the Minister said ‘the country has invested a lot of money to construct rail lines that are critical to national infrastructure.’
Stoutly defending the need for government to unbundle NRC, the Minister further said: “We cannot have an agency that is the regulator, the operator and also the owner. So, I will like to see a Railway Corporation that is not three-in-one. Concessionaires can be brought in to manage a part of the railways to become competitive”.
Indeed this makes sense and explains why not much revenue comes into the coffers of government through the Railway system because of government’s failure in running NRC like a business enterprise.
For me, unbundling NRC is the wisest decision by this government more so when it needs a lot of money to provide social services to Nigerians.
According to the Minister, “We can solicit for people who are interested in running the lines efficiently, competitively and cost-effectively, so as to generate revenue for the government to pay back some of the loans it took and at the same time for the concessionaires to make a living, employing Nigerians and putting food on the table for ordinary people.”
I will conclude this piece by saying these sounds very convincing and worthwhile reasons to unbundle NRC.
MUSA ILALLAH
EMEKA ANYAOKU STREET, ABUJA musahk123@yahoo.com
