![]() “I don’t understand why people should isolate rail from any other infrastructure. But the NRC MD said it is simplistic to access the facility’s benefits in terms of direct revenue accruals, even though on that score, it hasn’t done badly and would do better with more locomotives and coaches. Other commentators have also questioned the profitability of the Abuja to Kaduna line. He said until that happens, the viability of the line won’t happen. Freight would make it more viable,” he emphasized, adding that it was based on this that the line was conceived to be from Lagos to Kano. “It was never going to be viable as a passenger line. “When you start running freight over 600 kilometre that is when you will begin to talk of viability. He said freight service wouldn’t happen now because the line is short. Speaking on the viability of this infrastructure, a London-based international strategic railway delivery specialist, Rowland Ocholi Ataguba, said the Abuja-Kaduna rail service cannot be fully optimised without a robust freight service. Up till 2018, NRC recorded N20m losses monthly, according to him. The average monthly running cost minus salaries is around N100m monthly he told our correspondent. In the 2019 full year operations, the service generated close to N1.5bn, he said. Fidet Okhiria, in his response to our enquiries, said the Abuja-Kaduna rail service now generates between N130m to N140m every month. The service now generates sufficient funds to run without government monthly subvention, records also showed. The Abuja-Kaduna rail line is also gaining traction in terms of revenue generation. Four years later, the service has carried over four million passengers. On July 26, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the Abuja-Kaduna rail line for commercial use. “So if we are making N120 million and we are running with N90m we can start paying 20-30 million naira monthly and before we know it, we can raise $1 million that we can send to the minister of finance to pay as our contribution.” The minister of finance sent me the account details for the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to start paying in the money. “We have already opened an escrow account to pay in the money. Amaechi who spoke recently, said the project will also contribute some money to its repayment. Regardless of whether the project can raise enough funds to repay the debt the Federal Government will repay the debt with resources from other sources, especially from crude oil revenue, which is already happening, it was learnt.
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