The Federal Government has spent $247.98m (or N111.23bn at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s official currency rate of N448.55 as of December 30, 2022) servicing railway debts during the past two years, despite only earning N11.61bn from railway services during that time.
Nigeria spent $122.92 million servicing debts for the Nigeria Railway Modernization Project (Idu-Kaduna Section), the Nigeria Railway Modernization Project (Lagos-Ibadan Section), and the Nigeria Abuja Light Rail Project in 2021, according to information from the Debt Management Office’s reports on Nigeria’s external debt service payments.
The government spent $125.06 million by the year 2022 repaying loans for the Nigeria Railway Modernization Project (Idu-Kaduna Part), Nigeria Railway Modernization Project (Lagos-Ibadan Section), Nigeria Abuja Light Rail Project, and Nigerian supply of rolling stock and depot equipment for Abuja light rail project.
Despite spending N111.23bn on railway debt servicing, railway services were only able to generate N11.61bn according to new industry statistics, released from the National Bureau of Statistics.
