Buhari Approves N123bn For Construction Of Ibadan-Kano-Railway

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the payment of about 123bn ($318m) for the construction of the Ibadan-Kano-Railway – a standard gauge project.

This amount is the counterpart funding to the Chinese Government for the railway project.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi recently disclosed this.

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Amechi also said work on the Ibadan-Kano segment of the Lagos-Kano line may commence by the end of August.

The Chinese Government is funding the project that would cost $5.3bn.

China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC) would be handled by the construction of the railway.

Amaechi who spoke in a Democracy Day interview monitored on Channels Television on Friday night commended the Chinese Government. According to him, they had been very helpful in funding the railway modernization projects of the Federal Government.

He, however, added that

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the opening of an account. With the account, some of the profits being generated from the standard gauge train services would be secured for repayment to the Chinese government.

Amaechi disclosed that the flagship Abuja-Kaduna train, which started with 300 daily passengers, now records over 4000 passengers.

He said when the service first started, the government was making a monthly loss of N46m but now generates between N109m to N110m monthly profit.

Amaechi added that by the time the Ibadan-Kano-Railway service comes on stream with cargo operations added to the service, more profit would be generated to ease the repayment of the loan.

He said: “We must attribute our successes in the rail operation to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, on January 2020, announced the completion of the Itakpe-Warri rail line.

According to him, President Mohammadu Buhari would inaugurate the completed rail project later in 2020.

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