There is rising tension among workers of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) over plans by the Federal Government to unbundle the loss making corporation, Business Hallmark has learnt.
It was gathered that while the government had before now not publicly come out to announce its intentions for the company, there have been rumours in the transport industry that plans are in top gear to hand over the railway business to private investors.
The railway workers worst fear was, however, confirmed in late January when the Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo, revealed that the Federal Government was indeed planning to unbundle the corporation.
According to the minister, the corporation cannot operate optimally in its current state, hence necessary reforms and unbundling.
Sambo made the revelation while addressing the management team of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), the body saddle with the task of carrying out a visibility report on the planned sale, in Abuja. The minister said a cue should be taken from the reforms implemented in the ports which have brought great benefits, noting that such should be carried out in the railway sector.
Furthermore, it was reliably gathered from sources in the Ministry of Transportation that the government had been working secretly with the MOFI and a committee to work out the modalities of speedily disposing off the railway corporation and its assets.
It was also learnt that some of the tasks MOFI is expected to carry out is the enumeration and valuing of NRC to ensure that its value is captured in line with current realities as well as taking over its assets in trust through a task force that will comprise representatives from the transport and finance ministries in order to create optimum value for them.
A source in the Presidency revealed that the government is concerned about the NRC’s inability to generate enough income to pay back the huge debts incurred from the Chinese government and international finance agencies towards the FG’s railway modernisation project.
According to reports, government officials are worried that the nation will soon run out of the ability to abide by the terms of the loans if the trend continued, hence the decision to hand over the NRC to private investors for efficient optimisation.
Part of the plan is to unbundle the company into smaller and stand-alone units to be taken over by successful firms. For instance, the Lagos – Abeokuta – Ibadan, Abuja -Kaduna Warri-Itakpe standard gauges, as well as the Abuja Light Rail project will all be stand-alone companies to be sold to private entities.
The planned unbundling and privatisation, it was learnt, is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
However, the government’s resolve to forge ahead with the privatisation exercise is causing a storm in the railway industry, with NRC workers vowing to work against it.
