Minister of Transportation, Saidu Alkali, has disclosed that the Federal Government would take advantage of the numerous bilateral and multilateral agreements between Nigeria and other countries on trade, commerce, technology transfer, construction and engineering services to facilitate the ongoing multi-billion-dollar development of the rail transport sector.
Alkali explained that the rail sub-sector remains one of the catalysts the country could take advantage of, to operationalise such international agreements.
He spoke on Wednesday during his visit to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) headquarters in Lagos as part of his familiarisation tour of the Lagos-Ibadan and Kano-Maradi railway modernisation projects.
The minister said the visit allowed him to discover several challenges that require urgent actions.
He said the objective of his visit was to assess and evaluate the performance of the corporation in the management, coordination and implementation of rail projects and services within the South West axis that extend to other parts of the country.
Speaking of his plan to address some of the identified challenges, he said: “I am assuring you that through personal contact in an official capacity and using administrative machinery, I will reach out to the Controller General of Customs and the Chairman of the National Salaries, Income and wages Commission to facilitate the removal of the Customs building at APMT, Apapa and ensure speedy implementation of the Presidential approval of increased special allowances for the Nigerian Railway workers.”
He said the rail wagon assembling plant in Kajola in Ogun state should be expanded to include the assembling of containers to boost economic activities, especially with the expansion of the rail project services across the country.
While he assured the NRC management of his support, he called on contractors handling ongoing projects across the country, the corporation and other stakeholders vested with monitoring to wake up to their responsibilities.
The minister requested the NRC Property Limited managing director to provide comprehensive data on the corporation’s data of its real estate including their numbers, location, description, legal status and other information that will assist decision-making towards their effective utilisation in the interest of the corporation and national economic development.
Managing Director, NRC, Fidet Okhiria, told the minister that the corporation has been facing challenges in recent times, including security threats and vandalisation of critical infrastructure. He commended the efforts of various security agencies for securing the NRC facilities.
