Buhari's Promise to Link Itakpe-Warri Rail Line Remains Unfulfilled

President Buhari in his Next Level Agenda made a promise to link the Itakpe-Warri standard gauge rail line to the Abuja-Kaduna line going through Lokoja and extending a branch line to Baro in Niger state. In October 2019 the Federal Government signed a N1.4trillion ($3.9 billion) contract with China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CCRC) to link both lines and complete the construction of the Warri Seaport. 

Despite the contract signing, work is yet to commence on the rail line mainly due to paucity of funds. The Minister of Transport Mr Muazu Sambo in November 2022 during the PMB Administration Scorecard conference explained that:

“the rail line was constructed as a concession, and it was approved at Federal Executive Council.” “Unfortunately, because the concessionaire couldn’t perform, as we speak, we are preparing to go back to the Federal Executive Council in order to execute that corridor on an EP and CP plus F, meaning Engineering, Procurement and Construction plus Finance.”

It should be noted that this rail line was a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the FG charged to raise 15% of the cost of execution, while the construction company and Chinese Banks were to deliver 10% and 75% respectively. Furthermore, a concession to operate and manage the facilities for 30 years was given to the CCRC to recover the loans. The concessionaire (i.e., CRCC) according to the minister failed to meet up to its own duties.

Although the minister went on to state how important a project the Itakpe-Abuja rail track is and how committed the Buhari Administration was to be fulfilling the promise it is obvious that the administration would not be able to achieve this goal. It is because of these reasons that we rate this Promise BROKEN. 

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