The Federal Government has directed the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to hand over tickets and passengers’ identification to Secure ID, the company in charge of the e-ticketing platform for Abuja-Kaduna rail service.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi during a meeting with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) as they discussed the presentation of the Full Business Case Certificates (FBC) for the Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri e-ticketing service in Abuja.
The Minister revealed this will be beneficial in reducing train attacks in Nigeria, and also combat crime.
What the minister is saying
Amaechi revealed that the e-ticketing platform blocked all revenue leakages and increased generated revenue on the route from N100million to N400 million per month.
- He said “The benefits of the e-ticketing is that we rose from N100million to N400 million per month, which is an improvement.
- “We have been able to do something that will eliminate leakages.
- “The one I think I may disagree with the public, is the issue of ticket racketeering. I have spoken with the person in charge of Abuja-Kaduna e-ticket platform to take over the identification process from NRC.
- “Because what the National Assembly told me is that NRC doesn’t cross check the identification of passengers on the tickets. They wanted to do it, but they have not gotten the approval from NRC.
- “So, I have told NRC to allow them do it, so that we match faces with the names, it’s not all about crime alone but is also security, so we release it to those security outlets.
- “Even though we cannot eliminate 100 percent crime and corruption, it will reduce the danger of having to run into security crises.
- ”So, that we know that what we are battling with is not crises in our terminals, but on the way and I believe that, that also will be sorted out as we go to cabinet for approval of the security gadgets.“
Mr Michael Ohiani, the Acting Director-General of the ICRC, said the concession will generate over N140 billion for the country during the period and also help create over 3000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians.
In case you missed it
Recall Nairametrics reported last month that the FG said after the Kaduna attack, that it plans to beef up security in its railway infrastructure, revealing that it will implement an integrated surveillance system in the Abuja-Kaduna, Lagos-Ibadan and Warri-Itakpe railway systems.
This is the same Trains one idiot film maker to shoot movies inside to show the citizens what Buhari has done.