This was disclosed in the external debt service payments report by the Debt Management Office, saying the Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project (Idu-Kaduna Section) took $23.1million, The Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project (Lagos-Ibadan Section) gulped $15.49m while the Nigeria Abuja Light Rail Project gulping $24.07million.
The Nigerian government has claimed it spent $62.66million to service railway-related debts in the first quarter of 2023— from January and March.
This was disclosed in the external debt service payments report by the Debt Management Office, saying the Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project (Idu-Kaduna Section) took $23.1million, The Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project (Lagos-Ibadan Section) gulped $15.49m while the Nigeria Abuja Light Rail Project gulping $24.07million.
This means that the total amount spent in Q1 2023 is a slight increase from the $61.73m spent in Q1 2022.
As the government struggled to generate money from the railway sector, railway debt servicing costs rose.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, rail transport passengers fell by 53.65% from 953,099 in the first quarter of 2022 to 441,725 in the first quarter of 2023.
The statistics agency revealed that 59,966 tonnes of products were transported in the first quarter of 2023, up from 39,379 tonnes in the same quarter of 2022.
In terms of income production, travellers generated N768.44m during the period, a decline of 63.02 percent from N2.08bn in the same quarter the previous year.