Authorities of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), says the corporation is targeting to rake in an annual revenue of N6billion upon completion of the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri standard gauge rail projects
The Nigeria Railway Corporation had over the weekend said it generated N3.09bn from railway services in 2019. The Abuja-Kaduna railway generated a monthly revenue of over N130m.
Out of this N3.09 billion revenue in 2019, N1.5 blliion from was generated from the Abuja-Kaduna rail service.
The projection of N6 billion revenue when the Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri are completed and put to use means a doubling in the total revenue generated last year.
Fidet Okhiria, managing director, NRC disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja and signed by Taiye Elebiyo-Edeni, media assistant to the minister of transportation.
The statement quoted Okhiria as saying that the Abuja-Kaduna rail line generated about N130m monthly in 2019, as against the N80m generated in 2018.
The NRC said that with the reduction of passengers from 80 to 40 per coach in an effort to reduce or stop the spread of Covid-19, the projected revenue for 2020 would be affected.
Okhiria said the rail line had broken even, adding that, the money generated from the Abuja-Kaduna rail service was used to service other stations in the North like the Maiduguri station, which currently is not functional due to insecurity situation in Borno State.
A total of N90m was spent on running cost and payment of staff at the Maiduguri station, which has been idle due to insecurity in the state.”
