The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has invited private operators to use its approximately 4,000-kilometre rail network for a fee, provided they supply their own locomotives and rolling stock.
Managing Director of the NRC, Kayode Opeifa, said the corporation provides what it describes as track access, allowing private companies to operate on railway infrastructure built with public funds.
“You can bring your train, bring your locomotive, bring your wagons, bring your everything. We will run it on it. You just pay us your money. We don’t want to run the trains alone,” Opeifa said on Tuesday at BusinessDay’s Mobility and Logistics Conference in Lagos.
He likened the arrangement to road users paying tolls, saying railway infrastructure should be available to operators beyond the NRC.
Opeifa said the Lagos State Government was a pilot beneficiary of the arrangement through the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA).
He also said China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) had received a three-year licence from the NRC to operate a self-operated freight railway service, making it the first private foreign contractor authorised to operate standard-gauge rail freight services in Nigeria.
According to Opeifa, allowing qualified operators to use existing railway infrastructure could expand freight capacity, improve efficiency and attract private investment.
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“By encouraging qualified operators to utilise available railway infrastructure under an appropriate regulatory and operational framework, we can expand freight capacity, improve efficiency, attract investment and strengthen the role of rail in Nigeria’s logistics value chain,” he said.
The NRC is also planning to rehabilitate the legacy Lagos-Kano narrow-gauge railway and restore operations towards Kano, with proposed extensions to Nguru and Kaura Namoda.
Opeifa identified the reconstruction of the Baro-Minna narrow-gauge railway as another priority. The line would link Baro Port with the Lagos-Kano narrow-gauge railway at Minna, potentially improving the movement of agricultural and industrial goods.
He said the NRC’s Vision 2:5:10:20 framework seeks to expand the railway network from about 4,000 kilometres to 10,000 kilometres by 2028, with a long-term target of 20,000 kilometres.
The corporation also plans new standard-gauge connections between production centres and seaports, including a link from the Lagos-Ibadan corridor to Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.
Another proposed corridor would connect Lekki Deep Sea Port to the national rail network through Ijebu-Ode and Sagamu to Kajola, where it would link with the Lagos-Kano Standard Gauge Railway.
