FG mulls unbundling Nigerian Railways for optimal performance

In a bid to make to make rail transport more efficient and the Nigerian Railways Corporation, NRC, operate at optimal level, Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo, has said that the federal government is considering the unbundling of NRC in line with the objectives of government’s current reforms in the transportation sector.

The minister said as presently constituted, NRC cannot operate optimally, thus making necessary reforms and unbundling imperative.

Sambo who was addressing the management team of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), led by the CEO, Dr. Armstrong Katang, charged MOFI to drive the unbundling of NRC to make it more economically viable while offering world class services to Nigerians.

“One of the things I would like to see as the Minister of Transportation, through MOFI is the unbundling of NRC. There is a committee set up to unbundle NRC and I will urge you to work with the existing committee,” he said.

The minister referred to the reforms implemented in the ports and the benefits they have brought, noting that such should be carried out in the railway sector.

He said: “NRC, the way it is currently, is the way the ports were prior to concession, prior to the reforms of 2005. Today, even the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, workers are happier about how NPA is today compared to how it was prior to the reforms. This means the reformed NPA is generating more revenue to support its operations and also support its workforce and its pensioners.”

He assuaged the fear of job loss as a result of the unbundling.

“I don’t want NRC staff to see the unbundling as a threat to their jobs. If we have a better performing NRC, then we are going to have better salaries for its workers, better working conditions for its workers, more revenue for the FG and therefore the ability to even build more rail networks,” he stated.

Sambo pointed out that the issue of encroachment on railway property will soon be a thing of the past as “MOFI was berthed for a specific reason and that reason is for the federal government to take control of its assets and create optimum value for these assets”.