….. A consortium is taking over from GE.
General Electric (GE), a Boston, United States based company, will no longer be involved in Nigeria’s railway construction after signing a concession agreement in April of 2018.
GE and the federal government signed a contract to proceed with the interim phase of the narrow-gauge concession which is expected to grow freight haulage capacity in the country ten-fold to 500,000 metric tonnes annually. Minister of Transport, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, signed on the federal government’s behalf.
The agreement meant that GE would commence interim phase of concession of Nigeria’s 3,500km Narrow-Gauge Rail network.
However, Bloomberg reports that the agreements GE reached with the Nigerian government “are now being negotiated by Transnet and its consortium partners” including SinoHydro of China and APM Terminals.
“We have confidence in their ability and that of the other consortium members to execute on the rail concession project successfully”, Bloomberg quotes GE as saying in an emailed statement.
GE will now focus on infrastructure development in Nigeria in areas such as health care and power, the company said.
Nigeria is opening up its rail system to private investors following decades of government control. The president Buhari led federal government has promised to revamp Nigeria’s rail system as part of a broader plan to boost infrastructure in Africa’s biggest economy.
