The Federal Government, De-Sadal Nigeria Limited, and China Liancai Petroleum Investment Holdings Limited are set to begin work on a $60bn gas and 4,000-kilometre high-speed rail project in Nigeria.
The announcement came after the consortium presented proof of funds to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, in the presence of the Ministers of Transportation, Sa’idu Alkali, and State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, among others, in Abuja on Tuesday.
Chief Executive Officer of De-Sadal Nigeria Limited, Samuel Uko, speaking on behalf of the consortium, said the first phase of the project would link four major cities in Nigeria — Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt.
“Today, with our partners, I have just presented the official approval form for the project. The fund is coming from the Asian Development Investment Bank. And it is to cover the first phase of the project that cuts across four major cities in Nigeria.
The rail line is from Lagos to Abuja, to Kano, and from Abuja to Port Harcourt. So this is a very great work that the government have done. The federal government of Nigeria, through the ICRC, approved the outline business case. And the next step now was for us to submit the approval form to the government, which we have just done. So I believe in the shortest possible time, Nigeria will start enjoying a high-speed rail in Nigeria.”
On funding, he noted that $60bn had been approved for the entire project.
“Today, $60 billion approval fund has just been submitted to the government through our financial and technical partners. The first phase of the project is $55 billion. So the fund is ready, and the country is ready to move forward with this project,” he said.
Regarding the timeline, Uko stated, “Well, the 1,600 kilometres that covers the four major cities of the country will take us 36 months to build. But we won’t wait until the 36th month. For instance, from Lagos to Lokoja, we will cut across about six states. But when we get to the second, third state, the people from the first two states will start enjoying the speed train.”
He added that the project also includes gas development to meet the power requirements of the rail network. “The raw material for power is gas. So we have to develop the gas aspect to be able to access more gas to power the high-speed rail project,” he explained.
The SGF said the proof of funds would be verified.
“We want to establish the real amount of money that is available. We don’t doubt them, but that is the normal procedure that the government takes when huge sums of money are involved in such transactions.
This is a country that is business friendly especially under the administration of President Bola Tinubu,” he said.
Minister of Transportation, Sa’idu Alkali, explained that the project fits with the ministry’s goal of providing safe, secure, and affordable transportation.
He said, “We have submitted the outline business case to ICRC. They have approved it. This is a step towards preparing the full business case to be submitted to ICRC before we take it to the Federal Executive Council.”
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, assured the investors of sufficient gas supply.
“It has been proven that we have 210 trillion cubic feet of gas that need to be tapped. In the deep sea, we have over 600 trillion cubic feet. So I can assure the investors they will not be lacking in terms of gas,” he said.