By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria has secured $1.3 billion in funding to complete a railway project connecting Kano, the largest city in Northern Nigeria, to Maradi in neighbouring Niger, as part of efforts to boost infrastructure that will expand regional trade.
The project is part of a government plan to build rail networks across Nigeria to address the poor transport infrastructure that has affected economic growth in Africa’s largest economy for decades.
The Ministry of Transportation on Wednesday said that the railway line would build on existing economic and social ties to boost trade and cultural cooperation between the two countries.
In a statement signed by a spokesperson for the transport ministry, Mr Jamilu Ja’afaru, funding will come from a consortium led by the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), which will contribute 85 per cent of the total.
The remaining 15 per cent will be covered by the Nigerian government alongside institutions like the Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and African Development Bank (AfDB).
“The securing of $1.3 billion signifies a monumental step forward in the completion of this critical infrastructure,” the statement read in part.
Nigeria’s government has sought to rebuild the impoverished north of the country, parts of which have been ravaged for the past decade by Islamist insurgents.
In July 2023, Portugal’s largest builder Mota-Engil signed an 840 million Euro ($919 million) contract to supply and finance railway rolling stock for the project.
In a related development, the Minister of Transportation, Mr Said Alkali executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MPH Rail Development (UK) Limited to enable the company to carry out the design, construction, commissioning, operation, and transfer of the PortHarcourt–Enugu–Calabar–Abuja Standard Gauge Rail Line on Public – Private Partnership basis.
This development will enable the Company to concentrate on preparing relevant documents to support a request for approval from the Federal Executive Council to execute the project.
