Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said that the Abuja-Kaduna train service generates at least N300 million for the country every month.

Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Hard Copy, Amaechi said the ministry is contributing to the nation’s economic growth.

He said, “We make N300 million per month from the Abuja-Kaduna train.”

He added that “currently, we are running Lagos-Ibadan from the money we are making from Abuja-Kaduna rail service, at the end of the day, we pay back over N100 million to the federal government.”

Amaechi, who was a former governor of Rivers State, further disclosed that the government is planning to put about 16 trains on the Lagos-Ibadan rail line, stressing that this will increase revenue generation from that axis.

When questioned about the cost implications for developments experienced on the rail system, the minister said the country is capable of meeting its loan requirements.

Earlier in the year, Amaechi had stated that the Federal Government had borrowed about $2.5billion for the construction of a railway linking Lagos to Ibadan.


Speaking further about the debts accrued in the course of developing the rail transport system, the minister expressed confidence that “Nigeria has the capacity to pay back” adding that the nation has commenced repayments.

He disclosed that more developments were coming to the rail sector which will further boost the revenue generated by the ministry and as such aid the government in settling its debts.

According to Amaechi, work on the Kano-Maradi line and Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rails are expected to commence by the end of January.

mrvitalis:
[s]That's roughly $600k a month , that's roughly $7.2 million dollars a year. The project cost is around $850 million

so without maintenance , without paying anyone salary it would take 118 years to break even ......if we add salary n maintenance then you are looking at 300 years plus

850 million dollars to add 7.2 million dollars to our GDP is foolishness

With $850 million [/s]

TeeGentle:
and where is the money?

mrvitalis:
That's roughly $600k a month , that's roughly $7.2 million dollars a year. The project cost is around $850 million

so without maintenance , without paying anyone salary it would take 118 years to break even ......if we add salary n maintenance then you are looking at 300 years plus

mrvitalis:
That's roughly $600k a month , that's roughly $7.2 million dollars a year. The project cost is around $850 million

so without maintenance , without paying anyone salary it would take 118 years to break even ......if we add salary n maintenance then you are looking at 300 years plus

850 million dollars to add 7.2 million dollars to our GDP is foolishness

With $850 million

We can give the top 10 ceramics importers $20 million each to build plants n stop importing ceramics .....this would save us $2 billion dollars yearly , plus boast GDP with over $3bn using only $200 million

Another $200million can be used to set up 10 cassava to ethanol factory giving that as loan to the biggest cassava farming unions ....we can be the biggest ethanol producer in the world ...with a potential to export over $2 billion ethanol and produce for local use also ...plus over 20,000 jobs

Same $200 million can be used to set up 10 to 20 cassava to glucose/ethanol plants ....we taking of a $70 billion dollars market we have absolutely great comparative advantage ...capture 15% of that that's over $10 billion a year industry

Rail lines are expensive luxury that never make profit we can't afford now

Biodun556:


But your calculations are based on Abuja Kaduna rail alone what if Lagos Ibadan starts yielding ?