The managing director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Dr. Kayode Opeifa, has highlighted the crucial role of the South-East Development Commission (SEDC) in the federal government’s rail modernisation vision.
He said this on Wednesday during a working visit by the leadership of the SEDC to the NRC Headquarters in Lagos.
It was the first formal engagement between the NRC and any of the regional commissions established by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as part of the government’s efforts to ensure even development across geopolitical zones.
Opeifa observed that the visit by the SEDC Managing Director, Mark Okoye, and the Southwest Director on the Commission, Adejoke Adebayo Chukwumah, underscored the priority attention the SEDC attached to rail development in the region.
He emphasised that the NRC has historically been at the heart of Nigeria’s economic growth, tracing it back to the colonial era when the first rail lines were built to facilitate trade.
He stressed that the government was prioritising the rehabilitation and expansion of narrow-gauge railway networks to enhance mobility, reduce the cost of transporting goods, and improve economic productivity.
He said, “While Nigeria developed 3,500 kilometers of rail lines in our first 60 years post-independence, the Federal Government successfully constructed over 1,000 kilometers of new or refurbished rail lines in the past decade, marking a significant milestone in railway development.”
He noted that revitalising the railway system would lead to a significant reduction in the cost of goods, benefiting businesses and consumers alike.
He said rehabilitation of the eastern corridor railway line would restore connectivity among key cities in the southeast and other parts of the country.
Mark Okoye outlined an ambitious roadmap to transform the region into Nigeria’s preferred investment destination by 2030. He stressed that the commission would prioritize railway development across the five states in the Southeast.
“Our goal is to develop a seamless business climate across all five states in the region. We want consistency in ease of doing business policies, laws, and investment regulations to attract both domestic and international investors,” he said.
SOURCE: THEGUARDIAN
