Railway Contract Create 200,000 Jobs for Nigerians

About 200, 000 Nigerians will be engaged in the execution of the multi-billion naira railway contract awarded to China Railway Construction Corporation.

The local jobs openings in the execution of the project are expected to reduce the high number of unemployed persons presently roaming the streets for non-existent jobs.

Sources said the firm initially rebuffed attempts to

engage Nigerians until they were made to understand the grave implications going by the provisions of the Local Content Act.

The railway contract is for the construction of a fresh coastal railway from Nigeria’s commercial nerve to the capital of the Cross River State capital, Calabar. On completion, the coastal railway is expected to serve as an alternative link between the Western part of the country and the East.

The railway, which will connect many villages and towns in the Western and Eastern parts of the country,  stretches for 1,402 kilometres.

According to Xinhua, China Railway Construction Corp had signed a deal worth nearly $12 billion with Nigeria to build a railway along the coastal part of the country.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has said it and will enhance port service delivery by using the railway in cargo movement across the country.

The Port Manager, Lagos Port Complex (LPC), Apapa, Malam Nasir Mohammed who stated this in Lagos explained that the use of water, road and railway transportation was imperative for efficient cargo movement.

“The success of any port, especially our Nigerian ports, must be dependent on three angles. The water angle and the road angle, of course the road angle divided on the trucks and the railway. For Lagos port, we are trying to harness all the three. We already have an existing road angle through which we move cargoes including containers and other general cargo that leaves Lagos ports,” he said.

He stated that an existing rail track in the LPC terminated directly in Kaduna and Kano and enabled the inland container depot in Kano to move some boxes.

He, however, said with increased number of wagons, the weekly movement to Kano would be more frequent.

He said: “We are also beginning to look towards using the waterways to move cargo. We want to start engaging some stakeholders in discussions in such a way to see the possibility of using our extensive waterways to move cargo, not just within Lagos itself but maybe out of Lagos. It is something that can be used, because it’s being used in some other parts of the world much more seriously in such a way that you do not even see boxes. You do not even see containers on the roads.”

Thisday