Amaechi and Fashiola Explain Importance of $5.5bn Proposed By FG
Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and his counterpart at the
Power, Works and housing , Babatunde Fashiola, have explained in details why
Federal Government should take the $5.5bn foreign loan.
According to them, Nigeria will benefit immensely if it takes the loan
request to build new rail lines and finance capital projects.
Speaking before the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts
yesterday, Amaechi said the fund will be used in completing the Itape-Warri
rail line and to begin the Kano to Kaduna and Port-Harcourt to Calabar rail
lines.
The Senate committee had invited the minister and some members of the
executive to explain how Nigeria can pay back the proposed loans from proceeds
from the projects they would be expended on.
Amaechi, while explaining the economic viability of the proposed rail
projects, said Nigeria may not experience development until it grows its rail
system.
“I will like to quote someone in a conference I attended two days ago”,
he stated.
He said there are three items a country needs to develop its economy;
power, iron which is the steel industry, and the third one is the railway.
He said if any of these doesn’t exist, there can’t be development.
I'm sure that’s why we are having problems in the growth of the Nigeria economy.
“After the completion of these rail lines and when we have new
locomotives, it’s going to contribute tremendously to the growth of the
economy. Imagine the impact on agriculture alone. Imagine the deflation, drop
in price that will happen if agricultural products are conveyed seamlessly to
the market.
“We can get return on the funding in long term through freight because
the money is in freight and not the passengers. We have over 30 million tonnes
of goods that is tied down between Lagos and Kano alone. If you check our
seaports, goods are tied down because of Apapa road.
“What we plan between now and December is to ensure that we truck it
with the narrow guage to Ebute Meta for those who want to distribute around
Lagos and they can also take it from there by road while we continue by rail to
Kano and other parts of Nigeria,” he said
On his part, Fashola in a statement yesterday by the Director of Press
in his ministry, Olusegun Ogunkayode, emphasised the need to source for loans
to finance the development of critical infrastructure as a fulfillment of the
campaign promises of the federal government.
The Senate is expecting to receive a report from its Committee under the
leadership of Shehu Sani, to guide it in considering the advantages and disadvantages
of the loan to Nigeria’s economy.
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