NRC MD: Abuja-Kaduna rail recorded N20m deficit monthly in 2018

Fidet Okhiria, the managing director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), says the Abuja-Kaduna rail line recorded an N20 million deficit monthly in 2018.

This is despite the 400% increase in revenue recorded by the rail service.

Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, Okhria said the NRC spends over N100 million monthly as running cost.

The director attributed the high expenses to the purchase of diesel to power the generators at the train station.

“We are close to breaking even on the Abuja-Kaduna train and we have made progress because of the efforts we made. When we started, we were earning about N16m and spending about N56m,” he said.

“But right now, we can comfortably say we earn over N80m, although we still spend over N100m, which is closer to breaking even. By the time we have more coaches and run more trains, I think the expenses will reduce and more patronage will come in.

“The issue we have now is that we only run passenger trains. We don’t have freight to move from Kaduna to Abuja.

“Right now, all our stations are still powered by generator 24/7 and we buy about 99,000 litres (of diesel) every month to power those generators. So it eats deep into our revenue. But by the time we are able to connect to the public power supply, which we hope by this month will be done, the cost of buying diesel will drastically reduce and then we can break even.”

The director said more coaches will be deployed on the route as the number of train trips has increased from four to eight.