The Debt Management Office’s report on Nigeria’s external debt service payments, has revealed that the Federal Government allocated $62.66 million towards servicing railway-related debts in the first quarter of 2023.
From January to March 2023, the Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project (specifically the Idu-Kaduna Section) incurred a cost of $23.1 million.
The cost of the Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project (Lagos-Ibadan Section) was $15.49 million.
It was also gathered that the Nigeria Abuja Light Rail Project gulping $24.07m.
The sum spent in Q1 2023 is slightly more than the Q1 2022 total of $61.73m.
Rising debt service expenses in the railway industry coincided with the government’s efforts to increase revenue in the sector, which were largely unsuccessful.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of passengers using trains decreased by 53.65%, from 953,099 in the first quarter of 2022 to 441,725 in the same period the following year.
The statistics agency observed that in the first quarter of 2023, 59,966 tonnes of products were transported overall, as opposed to the 39,379 tonnes reported in the corresponding quarter of 2022.
Passengers generated N768.44m in revenue during the time period, a fall of 63.02 percent from N2.08bn during the same quarter the year prior.
