Matilda Omonaiye/
Eyebrows are being raised over wide gulf between contract costs in Nigeria and Ghana following reports on the proposed Ghana Railway line construction of 560km at the cost of $2.2billion when Nigeria was planning to execute 146km rail contract at the same cost.
According to critics, the cost for the lbadan-Lagos rail contract is exorbitant and three times more expensive compared to the costs of two rail projects being proposed in Ghana.
But, Mr Henry Djaba Jnr, the MD of Lakeland Group, the local content partners of CRCC, described the comparison as unfair.
Djaba Jnr argued that there is no basis for comparing the differences in the costs of the projects, in view of the circumstances under which each contract was reached by each country.
According to Djaba Jnr, the revelation on the website of the Ghana Ministry of Railways Development appears to have unsettled some officials within the Ministry of Transport in Nigeria, as it is being used by politicians attempting to tarnish the image and reputation of the former Minister of Transport, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, using the misplaced comparison of the two countries rail deal for political purpose.
Insiders at the Ministry of Transport in Nigeria also say it is wrong to place the blame on Amaechi’s table as the contract was actually negotiated during the Jonathan administration.
“It is unfair to now criticise Amaechi for the maladministration of the previous government of President Goodluck Jonathan under whose watch the award of the contract for the Lagos-Ibadan Railway line commenced at very high costs, considered by many to be very uncompetitive,” says a source at the Ministry.
Those close to the Minister say critics have failed to understand that the Lagos-Ibadan Railway project was not started by the Minister, but was inherited by the present Buhari administration from the Jonathan administration, as with other infrastructural projects inherited by the Buhari government, such as the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
“The focus of the Buhari administration has been to complete all abandoned or uncompleted projects of the previous government, rather than allow them to end up in the Courts, still abandoned or uncompleted, thereby continuing to deprive ordinary Nigerians of these vital infrastructures,” NewsmakersNG was told.
Reports say the first difference between the cost of the Ghana rail construction cost and that of Nigeria as pointed out is that the Lagos-Ibadan project is greenfield and a particularly challenging construction, whereas, the Ghana projects are part rehabilitation and part construction.
The other differences are that the different funding arrangements have impacted the relative costs of the projects and the fact that the Nigerian project was an uncompleted project by the former Nigerian government.
In his reaction to the reports, Ghana’s Minister, Hon. Joe Ghartey, highlighted the position of Ghana’s arrangement on their railway line construction. He said that CRCC had offered to rehabilitate and construct a 560-kilometer standard gauge railway line in Ghana at $2 billion, “whereas 340-kilometer standard gauge railway to be constructed by Ghanaian–European Railway Consortium (GERC) will cost $2.2 billion. By contrast, the Lagos-Ibadan 146-kilometer railway line was awarded at $1.5 billion, which is not three times the costs of the Ghanaian projects as it might have been suggested or deduced, especially because of the differences in the costing of the projects mentioned above. Why it can be perceived by some as an attack on the Nigerian government, as some are now quick to assume is uncalled for’.
The MD of CRCC, Mr Dou Yisou, Mr Djaba Jnr, and Hon. Ghartey expressed concerns and displeasure over what they called the inaccuracies and misrepresentations of how the two countries entered into their railway contracts, as it is now being used in some quarters for political purposes in Nigeria.
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