“It is capital intensive. N1trillion is about $2.7billion and that is just about 200kilometres of the railway. So if you plan to do Lagos-Ibadan and you are looking at about $8.7billion – this will be between N3trillion and N4trillion. How much is the budget of the country?
“That is why I said we need about $35 to $45 billion to be able to do Lagos-Kano, Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, Lagos-Calabar, and Abuja-Warri. Once you do these four tracks, you have covered the country, and you have solved the problem of transportation to a great extent.”
The Federal Government is trying its best? Giving a breakdown of all expenses incured so far for rail construction (especially the Lagos-Ibadan railroad), the Minister said the Federal Government is making efforts to acquire coaches and locomotives for the Lagos-Ibadan railroad.
“Lagos-Ibadan Railroad will cost about $1.6billion. This does not include the extra cost of things we did not prepare for. The Kaduna-Abuja construction will cost about $1billion.
“We have paid about $500milllion to buy locomotives for Lagos-Ibadan. So that’s what we’ve so far spent.”
N3.5tn has already been allocated for Infrastructure Development: Recall that Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, revealed that the Federal Government has allocated and disbursed over N3.5 trillion to fund infrastructure over the last three years.
He stated that the move is evidence that the Buhari administration is re-positioning the economy for growth.