- Safiu Kehinde
The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is set to initiate a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreement with the South West Development Commission (SWDC) for revivial of some old unserviced railway routes across the South West Geopolitical Zone.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Wednesday following a meeting between the NRC and members of top management of the SWDC led by its Managing Director, Mr Charles Akinola.
While hosting the SWDC management, the Managing Director of NRC, Dr Kayode Opeifa, said that operating rail routes in the South West would boost regional connectivity.
Opeifa declared that NRC was open for business as he expressed his delight that SWDC was set to become a strong player in the rail sector.
“We are delighted to see the SWDC take off from where the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission stopped in the area of developing a master plan for regional rail development for states in the South West,” he said.
Opeifa said the corporation was determined to work with all federal government agencies and sub-nationals to deepen railway penetration in line with the mandate of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
He said that similar development commissions had approached the corporation to seek areas of mutual cooperation and partnership, especially in reactivating the Eastern routes.
“Efforts are coming from the Niger State Government for the reactivation of the Northern flank of the Lagos-Kano western line.
“SWDC has shown interest in movement of agricultural produce for markets in Lagos and the North.
“What you are asking for is possible and will happen. We have also received your request for an operating track access licence.
“Our people are already looking at it and I have mandated all our directors to work with your technical team in bringing up the right MoU.” The NRC boss said.
He noted that, with moving the enabling law from the exclusive to the concurrent list, the Federal Government and the NRC no longer had monopoly of Nigeria’s railway system.
He said that all development commissions, state governments and private sector players were free to play in the sector.
In an earlier remark, Akinola said the commission was motivated by extensive work of the DAWN in the area of infrastructure and rail transport development in the six states in South West.
He said that regional rail connectivity was key to the economic revitalisation of the geopolitical zone.
He noted that the commission’s rail infrastructure development was divided into short, medium and long terms.
Akinola said that, on short term, SWDC sought for ceding of some old unserviced routes in the zone to it to operate on profit- sharing basis.
The SWDC boss said the commission was interested in reactivating the Osogbo-Dagbolu-Erunmu route.
He added that rail services in Lagos, Oyo and Osun states would be explored to bring foodstuffs to Lagos and taking consumer goods from Lagos to the other states.
“SWDC is convinced that these routes will spur economic development in the South West as they will come under some form of subsidy consideration for the people.
“We want to take up the Idogo route. This route is noted for taking farm produce from our farmers to markets in Lagos, where these food stuffs are in high demand.
“We want to incentivise agricultural produce, and Idogo line will play a major role,” he said.
On the medium term, Akinola said the commission would request operational and track access licence for new routes.
“We are looking at encouraging some investors to come into the rail sector and run the rail lines in the region.
“This agenda was advanced by the DAWN Commission in the past,” he said.
He equally demanded for land approvals to encourage construction of warehouses crucial for private sector players in developing the commercial side of the rail.
“This has been tried in Osun,” he said.
Akinola gave the assurance that the commission had the full backing of all the Southwest state governors, hoping that rail revival would boost the economy of Southwest.