Nigeria minister of transport, Chief Rotimi Amaechi has said that the federal government is shopping for a whooping $16 Billion for the eastern flank of the Nigerian Railway modernisation stretching from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri cutting across Aba, Owerri, Enugu, Umuahia to Markurdi, to Abakiliki, and to Awka, Lafia down to Bauchi, Gombe, Yola and to Damaturu and ends at Borno.
Speaking to newsman shortly after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Amaechi said that the President had approved the project.
“But we have to look for the money. The money is just not there. It is not easy, it is a total of about $16 billion and you don’t pluck $16 billion from the sky.”
Amaechi said that negotiations for loans is ongoing on other railways from Kano to Maradi in Niger Republic and on the Lagos/Ibadan axis.
He said that the first line of action was through Public Private Programme (PPP) arrangement, adding: “we will try and see if we can work on PPP, particularly as it pertains to the seaport.
“Don’t forget that two-deep seaports have been approved; Bonny seaport and the Warri seaport. The Port Harcourt Railway Industrial Park will. We should also be able to implement that through PPP. l hope we can but l doubt if it will be easy to get railway as PPP because it is quite expensive.”
On what is happening to the Calabar port dredging project, the minister Nigerian Port Authority is on it.
“They have advertised not contractors, they prefer to do it in a PPP arrangement basically to see how we can dredge the Calabar port.
He said that the total expenditure for the dredging might be about $16 billion, adding that the first step of action is PPP.
“It is after we finish with PPP that we can say the actual total figure of what the loan will look like.”
Amaechi said that President Buhari used to sleep and wake up thinking about railway “and if his BP will not rise, I must see him and tell him how far we have progressed. Once he hears that progress is being made he feels a bit happy.
“He is also pleased with what we have done in terms of the narrow gauge. Between now and December, we should ensure efficiency in the narrow gauge. We are bringing in more locomotives; we are bringing in more coaches and wagons.
“In terms of the narrow gauge, if not for a hitch, we would have commenced trucking cargo from Apapa seaport to Ebute Meta and take away the challenges we are having with that Apapa bridge and the bad road, that will happen before December.”[myad]
