Nigeria, China Sign $8.3bn Rail Contract
By Rasheed Bisiriyu
 2nd NOV 2006

After several weeks of delay, the Federal Government has finally signed a $8.3bn contract for the construction of a standard gauge railway line from Lagos to Kano with a Chinese firm, the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, who in a national broadcast, announced government’s approval for the project in August, was to have inaugurated the construction in Lagos on September 28. It was, however, postponed at the last minute without any official reason.

Signing the contract in Abuja on Monday night, on behalf of Nigeria, the Minister of State for Transport, Mallam Mohammed Aliyu, said the project was in two tranches, with the first phase scheduled for completion in five years by the Chinese firm.

The president of the CCECC, Mr. Lin Rongxin, signed for the firm at the ceremony, which was witnessed by Obasanjo.

The Agency France Presse quoted Obasanjo as saying that the rail modernisation project was part of an integrated transportation system for the country covering land, air and maritime transport.

Obasanjo said the construction of the new standard gauge track north-south line was only the first phase of a modernisation programme that would cover two major longitudinal lines.

According to him, the second will link the southern oil city of Port Harcourt and the central city of Jos and five latitudinal lines that will also link all the 36 state capitals in Nigeria. Under the 20-year strategic plan for the modernisation of the transport sector, about 8,000km of standard rail line will be constructed with the first phase covering 1, 315km.

The Chinese recently granted Nigeria a $2.5bn loan facility out of which a substantial amount will be used on the rail project.

Obasanjo also charged the Chinese company to look ahead by projecting possible rail links with neighbouring Benin, Niger and Chad.

Also speaking, Rongxin said the rail contract was the biggest ever in the history of the country, and that of Nigeria/China ties, adding that the project was “a design, construct and maintain project”.

He said that about 50,000 Nigerians would be employed during the construction of the rail line.

The new Lagos-Kano rail is to raise the traveling speed of passenger train to 120-150km/h.

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