The recent approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the $1.9 billion rail line that will link Kano to Maradi in Niger Republic through Dambatta (Kano state), Kazaure in Jigawa state, Daura and Jibia in Katsina state attracted lots of discussions and the general belief among some of the elites is that the project was of no economic value and unfortunately many gullible Nigerians agreed to this and carry this notion all over the social media.
AfCFTA
What many do not care to know, is that there is the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement signed by African countries to develop Africa and link the whole continent together via rail, road and air.
Nigeria was the 54th country to sign this agreement, and all signatory countries are expected to develop a link railway to terminate at each other’s border.Consequent upon this, is what led to the remodeling six international Airports in Nigeria, the VISA on arrival policyand roads and railways infrastructural development commenced.
ERGP
There is also a document called ERGP (Economic Recovery and Growth Plan) andcombined with AfCFTA, program is being used to turn Nigeria into a manufacturing and producing nation and as an Economic Hub for Africa through massive infrastructural development along some strategic economic corridors among which is the LAKAJI.
The LAKAJI corridor was named from the three largest cities along the trade route (Lagos-Kano-Jibia) and it runs along eight major states: Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ogun, and Oyo. It is about 1,225-kilometre long and over 64 million people live along it. The corridor serves three major functions: internally linking the larger producing areas in northern Nigeria to the most populated centers in the south, exporting and shipping goods produced along the corridor and importing and distributing goods from the shipping ports of Lagos to inland States of Nigeria. About 17,000 fly the road between Lagos and Ibadan and 5,000 vehicles between Abuja and Kano with about 10-14 percent made up of heavy vehicles.
LAKAJI
LAKAJI is Nigeria’s busiest transport corridor facilitating the movement of 30 million tonnes of goods per year valued at more than $6 billion and accounting for 36 per cent of the country’s total gross domestic product (GDP).It is a major conduit for food supplies from the North to the South and also a vital channel for food supplies to neighbouring countries in Niger, Chad, Cameroon andBenin. Experts agreed that leveraging on the potential of the region will offer untold benefits for the nation and, ultimately, the continent.About thirty threecommercially viable and relevant high priority agribusiness investment opportunities have been identified across LAKAJI (Inputs, Production, Processing, Manufacturing, Warehousing & Infrastructure, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)).
USAID
A study conducted by USAID on the LAKAJI corridor furtherrevealed that it costs over $3,000 and takes approximately 12.5 days to send a 20-foot container from Jibiya to Lagos. Conversely, it costs nearly $5,000 and takes approximately 19.5 days to ship a 20-foot container from Lagos to Jibiya. This arose mostly in port clearance charges which discourage use of Nigeria Ports by Niger and other neighboring countries.The overall cost and delivery times along the Lagos-Kano-Jibiya corridor are significantly greater than similar corridors in West Africa.
The most cost-effective way of bridging the gap in costs and delays is building modern railway. Shipping a container along this segment is 25% cheaper by rail than by road. The cost from Lagos to Kano is about $0.045 per km (NGN 7.1 per km), plus cost of insurance at 0.25 per cent of consignment value. Keeping all other conditions constant on the corridor, including the vehicle transport cost from Kano to Jibiya and the informal fees along the way, using rail from Lagos to Kano could save the shipper $1,195 per consignment.
Economic corridor
The proposed railway was conceived on the LAKAJI trade corridor that was identified as an economic corridor in 2013 by the USAID next LAKAJI Investment Corridor Project. The Summit identified LAKAJI Corridor as a magnet for investment in Nigeria’s agricultural sector and represents a mega-opportunity for investors, linking the largest consumer market in West Africa (Lagos) with some of the highest potential agricultural zones in the region. It was also identified as a key route for moving agricultural crops critical to food security and articulated the features of transforming the corridor from a congested single strand of roadway into a multi-strand combination of Road, Rail and Air, i.e. a Multi-Modal Trade Expressway and envisaged the entire corridor as a Free Zone for agri-processing
Rail line along the corridor will therefore turn it into a bimodal network (roads and railways) and into a more efficient and transformational route. Nigeria’s intervention in transforming it from a classic transport corridor into effective economic corridors and make them work for the agricultural sector will require both hard (roads, railways, airports, market centres, warehouses, dry ports and other productive infrastructure) and soft (trade laws and appropriate policies) corridor components aim to reduce the cost of doing business in the area and facilitate start-up and operation of business ventures. Nigeria has all it takes with infrastructural development due to its 35% ROI compared to the 7.7% world average.
Cereal production basin
A number of Nigerians have asked why Kano – Maradi rail line? This can best be explained looking into the agro-trade sector on the economies of both Nigeria and Niger. The southern part of Niger (Maradi axis) and northern Nigeria form one cereal production basin in which markets perfectly integrated and products circulate easily. The Kano–Katsina–Maradi corridor represents the axis around which the whole area gravitates. As a major trade corridor in West Africa, it has for a long time linked the Gulf of Guinea to North Africa and the Middle East and also form part of the trans-Saharan trade route which has a historical significance of West and North African integration. Part of the cereals bought by Nigerians in Niger are stocked in Maradi are up to 5,000 tons, while those from Dawanau in Kano can exceed ten thousand tons. The volume of trade that happens here is intensive, but largely informal.
In a Nigeria – Niger Joint Commission meeting, the extension of the corridor to Maradi in Niger Republic was first initiated and the issue of Niger Republic goods transiting through Nigerian Ports and as well as the facilitating movement of these goods through the Nigerian transit corridor was featured prominently. In relation to this aspect, several delegations from Niger Republic have visited Nigeria in the past to complain about the problems militating against the use of the Nigerian Ports by the Niger Republic Economic Operators. Although the corridor is linked at present by road, establishment of a rail line will go a long way in facilitating the movement of transit goods through the Nigerian corridor. This was reiterated at the 37th Session of Council of Ministers of NNJC.
The rail infrastructure
The need for the rail infrastructure along the corridor was further corroborated in the Katsina State Economic and Investment Summit in 2017, where Asiwaju Bola Tinubu urged federal government to pay more attention to the LAKAJI corridor to ease trade by adopting a strategic approach where the upper north has the capacity for agricultural production that should be based on strength. He further reiterated that the corridor’s huge agricultural potential holds the promise but is hampered by lack of infrastructure particularly the poor condition of roads and absence of a rail line.
As a response to this, present government awarded contracts of rail line from Lagos to Ibadan and is nearing completion, that of Ibadan to Kaduna has been awarded, Kaduna to Abuja is operational and linking Kaduna to Kano is on. What remains now is to link the remaining part of the corridor, i.e. Kano to Jibia and Maradi. Daura is outside the loop but forms part of the loop’s branch, just like Dutse in Jigawa state. Daura is along the Nigeria-Niger livestock route while Dutse is one major source of grains supplies to the corridor agri-trading complex. The establishment of Transport University in Daura calls for the linking it with rail so as to add to its infrastructural need for the transport development planning.
Abba Yakubu Abdullah, Ph.D. is the Special Adviser on Agriculture and Natural Resources to the Katsina State Governor.
