…We lack capacity for E-payment’ – NRC
As the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Railway Corporation, (NRC) was said to have generated about N5bn revenue from the Lagos-Ibadan train services in 2022, investigative report published has revealed that the number could have been much higher if the corporation had blocked all leakages, especially fraudulent ticket racketeering.
According to the report, data gleaned from NRC showed that nothing has affected the dwindling revenue of the railway more than the internal sabotage of ticket racketeering. Earlier earmarked for completion by 2016, but it was not until June 10, 2021, that former President Muhammadu Buhari finally commissioned the project.
The report further stated that in spite of the hype to start e-ticketing to whittle down fraud, at some of the NRC stations, like elsewhere, only cash is accepted, as no digital or online payment system is in place.
Other leakages, the report said, are that there were no requests for the passengers’ details such as names or any form of identification, while buying the passenger ticket. Also,it was observed that often passengers have to fight their way into the coaches while entering the train before it departs, as it has become a battle for the fittest. There was no check for tickets before entry, and some passengers hung on the moving train to their destinations.
The investigative report further revealed that the fraud in the ticketing operation is actually getting worse. Some staff members of the corporation have built a high wall of racketeering around ticket sale.
Efforts to speak to NRC Ebute-Meta Manager proved abortive, and none of the staff was willing to speak on the matter.
However, observers say the ticketing fraud is so pervasive that curbing it will require more commitment on the part of the authorities. Some of those, who spoke with newsmen called for a more advanced ticketing operation by introducing online ticketing platform like the airlines. A passenger suggested working towards a computerised system. According to him, “this has the capacity to reduce the manipulation going on with the present ticketing system.”
Recall that in 2021, the then Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, disclosed that the country had started a N900 million e-ticketing project for the NRC. The project specifically targeted the Abuja-Kaduna railway line.
In that year, the corporation made out that it would select operators for e-ticketing at the railway stations. This development was reported after the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) granted NRC licenses. Two years after this reported commitment, the e-ticketing platforms are yet to be introduced.
Recall also that on June 16 this year, the NRC had acknowledged that its lack of a payment platform led to money losses. The NRC Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, was quoted as saying that the corporation was losing revenue to a lack of payment platforms. A Dataphyte report had also noted that although passengers increased by 18 percent, the revenue of the NRC dropped by N1.2 billion.
The Lagos-Ibadan railway line was constructed with a loan of $1.267 billion from the China Exim bank with a maturity period of 20 years and a seven-year grace period. According to the loan documents, the loan is expected to have been entirely repaid by 2037. The NRC spokesperson, Mahmoud Yakubu, was recently quoted as saying that: “Cash is indeed the only form of payment now; and we are working on transiting to digital payment platforms soon.”
Analysts say the current ticket monitoring process is highly compromised. They pointed out that if the cashless system is put in place, it will go a long way in eliminating, or substantially reducing these identified leakages.
The alternative, the analysts said, is to hand over the administration of the corporation to a consortium for fixed rent.
