Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi said on Friday that the idea behind the construction of the rail line from Kano to Maradin, in Niger Republic was economical and not political.
Amaechi, who stated this in Abuja said that Nigerians should talk more on the employment opportunities the project would generate as well as imports and exports activities that would open up for Nigeria through the neighbouring countries.
The minister said in a statement that “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 road is not safe in Nigeria, there is Customs’ interference, police checkpoints here and there.
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“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 KanoMaradin. 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 onward movement outside the country.
“Nobody has talked about the employment this investment will generate; nobody has talked about the economic benefits, that we will raise funds for the country and that the economic interest is by far outweigh the current investment.”
He, however, 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, noting that they would definitely comply with the terms of the loans and payback.
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. We expect that money from there should go to the national till from which we can also pay back from.
“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 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,” said the minister.
