The Acting Director-General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Michael Ohiani, has stated that the electronic ticketing for the Lagos/Ibadan and Warri/Itakpe rail lines is to generate N140bn and create 3,000 jobs in 10 years.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the Acting Head, Media, and Publicity of the Commission, Mr. Manji Yarling.
The statement revealed that Ohiani recently presented the Full Business Case certificates for the project to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and said the projects would be domiciled with the Nigerian Railway Corporation.
In the statement, Ohiani said, “The concession will generate over N140bn for the Federal government and create over 3,000 direct and indirect employment within the 10-year period of the concession.”
He explained some of the primary objectives of the concession were to enhance the convenience of passengers by making it possible to book tickets from the comfort of their homes.
He stated, “The next step is to set up a special purpose vehicle to deliver the project and the minister will take it to the Federal Executive Council for approval, before going to the Ministry of Justice to clear it.”
The project will design, finance, build, operate, and manage a secure ticketing system for passengers on its Lagos – Ibadan and the Warri-Itakpe routes.
He added, “While the Warri-Itakpe service is expected to generate about N50.72bn, the Lagos-Ibadan service is put at about N90.43bn within the 10-year concession period.”
Ohiani said before the concession, the Federal Government only generated about N189m monthly from the Abuja – Kaduna service, a figure that rose to N400m after the concession.
