FG mulls unbundling NRC into three firms to recover investments, pay Chinese loans
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has hinted that the huge loan burden hanging on the nation’s railway system is forcing the Federal Government to think of unbundling the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) into about three companies.
In an interview while inspecting construction activities on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Rail system, he averred that “We intend to break the NRC into three other companies and we are working on that. One of the companies will manage the tracks, another will operate, and then the third one will be saddled with the task of marketing”.
“So, with this, you won’t have one company that is doing everything and is not able to operate. That is what is obtainable in many countries; it is so in South Africa; it is so in other areas and in Britain.”
Amaechi added further that experts in the ministry are doing the paper work, saying “When they finish their work, I will let you know, and then, I will go to the President, the cabinet and the National Assembly.”
Before now, there are other government enterprises which had been slated for similar unbundling but lack of what experts described as political will, they are yet to see the light of the day.
These include the NIPOST and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). For more than two years now, the Minister of Communication had been saying that government will unbundle NIPOST into five companies to return the agency to profitability after all.
