According to Fidet Okhiria, managing director of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), the Federal Government lost roughly N113 million as a result of the closure of the Abuja-Kaduna railway.
After terrorists attacked an Abuja-Kaduna passenger train on March 28, 2022, the route was shut down for more than eight months. About 14 people were killed during the incident, while 63 were formally reported missing.
On Saturday, December 3, Okhiria said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that in addition to the loss to the government, people also incurred damages as a result of the route’s closure.
He said, “The last time we checked that was between the months of February to August. We have lost about N113 million.
“Using what we were earning between Jan and March, so we had to use it as a working document.
“Although, when the train was working, there are a lot of other businesses that were going on.
“There were people selling on the train, there were people selling around the stations, and there were people that had opened shops and people were patronising them because the trains were running.
“So those were indirect benefit and cost that have been lost to the Nigerian economy.
“More so, somebody who would have travelled from Kaduna to Abuja via train for some form of transaction and couldn’t make it because the trains were not running would have also lost something.
“The economic benefits is also lost, so we should not only look at the Naira and kobo that railway would have been able to make from it, but include all other losses by Nigerians.”
The FG declared that the Abuja-Kaduna railway operations would start up again on Monday, December 5.
