By Dipo Olowookere
Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr Fidet Okhiria, has informed the Senate that his agency was yet to receive over N330 million allocated for its capital projects captured in the 2016 budget.
Mr Okhiria made this disclosure on Tuesday while addressing members of the Senate Committee on Land Transport.
The NRC boss further said the corporation was underperforming because it is not well-funded, pointing out that the agency still works with obsolete machineries and workshop equipment and urged the lawmakers to “come to our assistance as the railway is critical to economic development.”
According to him, railway has capacity to bring down cost of production of commodities in the country if sustained, but warned that critical infrastructure has to be put in place to avoid falling back to the dark days of the corporation that brought about stoppage of train services.
“I want to appeal to the distinguished Senators and members of the House of Representatives to come to our assistance as the railway is critical to economic development,” he said, noting that, “We believe you have the capacity to ensure not only robust yearly allocation, but also prompt budgetary releases to accomplish set goals.”
