Federal Ministry of Transportation has stated that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed with MPH Rail Development (UK) Limited for the proposed Port Harcourt-Calabar-Enug –Abuja standard gauge rail project is not binding.

The Minister of Transportation, Said Ahmed Alkali, stated this while reacting to comments and commentaries by certain persons, especially on social media, concerning the status and implications of the MoU signed on February 12, 2024.

Alkali informed that a MoU is a non-binding agreement that states each party’s intentions to take action, conduct a business transaction or form a new partnership. He noted that it is not a legally binding agreement, stressing that it only provides a platform for further engagement, discussion, scrutiny and the provision of required guarantees by the parties to reach an agreement if they are satisfied.

He stated that the MoU in question arose from an unsolicited proposal presented by the British African Business Alliance (BABA), an association based in the UK with an interest in business in Africa.

Alkali explained that its proposal was initially submitted to the ministry on August 27, 2019.

According to him, as required, the proposal was submitted to the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) on December 8, 2023. He noted that the major attraction of the proposal is BABA/MPH’s initiative to achieve 100 per cent private sector funding for the project ‘with no loans or debt to the Nigerian Government or any of its agencies,’ as captured in Article 3.3 of the MoU.