Dearth of manpower, setback for railways’ revival

Railway, no doubt, is the most important and effective means of land transportation, and it plays an un-substitutable role in the socioeconomic development of all economic powers, thus a focus on railway is critical to Nigeria becoming one of the top 20 global economies in 2020.

As at 2003, Nigeria’s rail system had only some 3,557 kilometres of single gauge tracks largely not functioning. The country had just two major rail lines: Lagos to Kano and Port Harcourt in Rivers State to Maiduguri in Borno State. Both lines were relatively in a state of disrepair until in 2009 when some significant investments began to creep into resuscitating the sleeping economic giant.

Thus the country has to rely on road to transport heavy goods across the country, a situation that has left our roads in worst conditions with huge human and economic losses. The only operational long haul segment of Nigeria’s rail network is between Lagos and Kano, and it came alive in 2013 - refurbished by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and Costain West Africa.

To remedy the poor condition and ensure efficiency, profitability of the nation’s railroads, the Nigerian Government in 2002 proposed a 25-year railway development plan as part of the Vision 20:2020 economic emancipation effort. In that vision was a focus on connecting major cities in Nigeria with faster standard (double gauge) rail line network.

Already, the building of the standard gauge tracks has commenced. The first leg of the line - the Abuja-Kaduna service, was completed and commissioned in July 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari. The second leg, the Lagos-Ibadan, has commenced and should be delivered by 2020.

The standard gauge rail system is coming with huge economic benefits to Nigeria. It is also coming with transfer of new skills and technology.

To underscore the benefits, the feasibility study shows that the coastal rail project alone is projected to “create 50,000 direct job opportunities for Nigerian professionals and non-professionals and 100,000 indirect jobs during its execution.”

The study also projects that “after completion, the operation, maintenance and management of the coastal railway will provide more than 20,000 permanent jobs as well. Among the 50,000 direct jobs, 26,000 will be for professional cadre: management staff, engineers, foremen, operators, artisans, etc. and 23,800 for non-professionals.”

Other intrinsic benefits include easy and efficient transportation of farm produce to markets thereby decongesting the roads and saving more for the government and prolonging the lifespan of the roads; increase the value of lands along the railway routes thereby increasing national wealth accessible to all citizens.

Also, being the cheapest mode of transportation; it will ease movement of labour and raw materials thereby enhancing industrial development, stability of market for goods and services due to efficient movement of people and goods and bulk transportation of food and clothes in times of emergencies such as flood and famine.

Already, the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge train service is having a positive impact on the Nigerian economy and the Nigerian Railway Corporation. Whilst a lot of commuters now travel quickly from Abuja to Kaduna, the NRC is now benefiting from new skills, trainings and technological transfer.

Mr. Pascal Nnoli, the NRC Liaison Officer in Abuja, told our correspondent that the CCECC trained a number of NRC technicians on the Abuja-Kaduna train service and that same will be done on other new lines being built.

He said: “62 Nigerian railway professionals were trained in the first instance. The training cuts across civil engineering, signalling and telecommunication, mechanical, electrical, operations and commercial. Subsequently, more people were trained by the CCECC as they were deployed to the corridor.”

He explained further that, “Between July 2016 and July 2017, we worked with 42 Chinese on the Abuja-Kaduna train service. But from August 1, 2017, the number reduced to 21 Chinese experts. That’s about 50 per cent reduction in expatriates.”

On the operations of the line, he said the NRC determined 100 per cent but that occasionally, it could consult with the Chinese technical staff. “But basically, the NRC determines the running of the services.

“As we speak, the NRC has 488 staff working on the corridor compared to CCECC’s 21. The NRC now carries out independent maintenance of the standard gauge rail lines, except major maintenance where the Chinese expatriates also join the NRC team,” he said.

He also said: “The NRC has equally taken possession of critical equipment that are used for maintenance. We now own the tamping machine, the ballast profiling machines and ballast distribution machine. These machines are now operated by Nigerians with little support from the Chinese. The NRC also has a 1300-tonne rescue crane in case of accidents. We can evacuate the train,” Mr Nnoli said.

A further analysis of the local benefits of the Abuja-Kaduna corridor shows that the contract has significant input from local partners as the subcontractors and suppliers.

Findings from the authorities concerning local contents of the AbujaKaduna Railway Project show that during construction, the average number of direct local employment created by the project each year was around 2,400, which was comprised of office managers, engineers, technicians, operators, drivers, labourers and so on. The accumulative job opportunities created in the seven years is around 17,000.

Also, at the first stage of operation of the Abuja to Kaduna train service, around 600 people were involved in the operation management. As the operation service becomes more and more mature, the number of job opportunities will rise to about 1,000 in the near future, a government official told our correspondent under condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorised to speak on the matter.

“During the execution of the project, the project made extensive use of locally manufactured materials like cement and rebar, and materials imported by local suppliers like diesel, bitumen, lubricants and tyres. According to the record, among other bulk materials, 45,000,000 litres of diesel, 200,000 tonnes of cement, 23,000 tonnes of rebar, 3,000 tonnes of bitumen, 10,000 drums of lubricants, and 20,000 pieces of tyres were supplied by local suppliers” he noted.

He explained further that the local suppliers and subcontractors engaged in the project was around 200.