Nigerian railway projects will create employment opportunities, says Amaechi

President Muhammadu Buhari is focusing on railway investment through construction of new lines and revival of old ones in order to create employment, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said.

The minister, in a statement by his media aide, Mrs Taiye Elebiyo-Edeni, said all the ongoing projects would contribute immensely to the country’s gross domestic product.

Indeed, he said the construction of the eastern rail line recently flagged off would generate between 20,000 and 50,000 jobs apart from new businesses that would spring up along the rail corridor.

“Let us look at the economic benefits; in the course of doing the visibility of this project, I discovered that there are so many natural resources along that track, such as iron ore all over the North-East. There is coal between Benue and Enugu.

“What the train does is that it provides logistics for the movement of natural resources for value addition.”

He was also quoted as saying, “I expect it to employ between 20,000 and 50,000 workers. At the conclusion of construction, imagine how many workers will be employed at the industrial park at the seaport.

“The essence of the President’s investment in the project is to create employment. He hopes that we are able to grow the economy of Nigeria through transportation, create employment in the course of the infrastructure.

“And at the end of the construction, we expect those who do business in Nigeria to be able to acquire land and site industries along the rail corridor.”

Amaechi said that the most significant rail projects were the Lagos-Kano line moving 30 million tonnes of cargo per year and the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri expected to move about 11 million tonnes of cargo when completed.

He said that the ministry was working on getting funding for Lagos-Calabar.