we need a railway

Abuja to Kaduna rail network to start March 2016....Excellent news....

This will clearly boost productivity create wealth, drop costs, sustain real estate prices in Kaduna State.

So why cant we have this sort of fast modern trains across Nigeria?

If we sell 50% of our stake in NNPC JVs and invest as seed capital in a fund to build a Costal Railway from Lagos to Calaber with spur to Aba, Onitsha.....then low oil price or not, our GDP will double, unemployment will crash, Federal and State revenues will increase astronomically. (There is no West to East railway in Nigeria. ..after 55 years of independence )

As it stands, only the FGN ie Nigerian Railway Corporation can operate a railway.....(crazy i know..), the Railways Act 1955 vests regulation and provision of rail services solely on Nigeria Railway Corporation. Now the NRC under Sijuwade has simple been very impressive, the current DG of NRC is one of Nigeria best, but we cant have NRC being just the only player...they simply cant meet demand..

There is a bill to repeal the existing Railways Act of 2004, but lets get aggressive and innovative ....make the NRC only a regulator not an operator.

Do a rail auction, let the states as regions commit to providing free land, lease out land to private rail operators to build regional rail network.....these regional networks can then be connected nationally.

Sell shares in these regional railways to PFAs, and the public. Railways are "safe" income generating investments....

Build the damm thing....

Let the regions compete, let the railway companies compete just as the GSM companies competed.

We need to be bolder and more aggressive in creating jobs and opportunities.

Its our problem, we can fix it...