The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi has said the country needs about 36 to 40billion dollars to connect the whole country through the State capital with rail.
Amaechi, who disclosed this in Abuja of Friday in an interview said they are doing so much with little, so that what happened in other countries won’t happen here because the country will pay back the loan.
“We have had debt forgiveness before but that is not the aim, our aim is to be able to pay back and to pay back there are so many things we can do.
“We are constructing new seaports in Lekki, Bonny via Portharcourt, money from there we expect that it should go to the national till from which we can also pay back from,” he said.
He also assured Nigerians that the main idea behind the construction of the rail line from Kano to Maradin, in Niger Republic was purely economical rather than political.
Amaechi explained that the decision to invest in Kano-Maradin rail line is purely economical, no politics, people are the ones politicising it, I made that decision because there is a competition between the coastal States of Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana.
He said Nigerians should talk more on the employment opportunities the project would generate as well as imports and exports activities that will open up for Nigeria through the neighbouring countries.
