Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said on Friday that the main idea behind the construction of the rail line from Kano to Maradin in Niger Republic was purely economic rather than political.
Amaechi, who disclosed this in Abuja, said that Nigerians should talk more on the employment opportunities the project would generate as well as import and export activities that will open up for Nigeria through the neighbouring countries.
In a statement, the minister said the “decision to invest in Kano-Maradin rail line is purely economical, no politics, people are the ones politicising it”.
“I made that decision because there is a competition between the coastal states of Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana. The other three countries are able to move cargoes from these landlocked countries to their seaports for either exports or imports, they are able to do those businesses but we are not able to do them because the landlocked countries are complaining of crimes, the roads are not safe in Nigeria, there is Custom interference, police checkpoints here and there,” Amaechi said.
“Therefore, they find it difficult to do business in Nigerian seaports. So to be able to attract those cargoes, we decided to construct a rail line from Kano-Maradin. Maradin is a village in Niger Republic and we will also build warehouses there to be able to attract cargoes from neighbouring countries and transport them effectively to Tin-Can or Apapa seaport for movement onward or outside the country.
“Nobody has talked about the employment this investment will generate, nobody has talked about the economic benefits that we would raise funds for the country and that the economic interest is by far outweigh the current investment,” he said.
He noted that it was the duty of the ministry to construct railways while the Ministry of Finance provides the fund to construct and also ensure that the loan was paid back.
He added that Nigeria would need about $36 billion to $40 billion to connect the whole country through the state capital with rail.
“We have had debt forgiveness before but that is not the aim, our aim is to be able to pay back and to pay back there are so many things we can do. We are constructing new seaports in Lekki, Bonny via Port Harcourt, money from there we expect that it should go to the national till from which we can also pay back.
“We can also pay back if we begin to push manufactured cargoes to different areas of the country and run it efficiently to be able to generate some funds in which we can also use to pay back.
“If we don’t mismanage our crude oil investment, we should also be able to pay back from there but what is critical is the cost of building this infrastructure now because it will not be the same in the near future if we don’t build now,” Amaechi said.
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