Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) has revealed that the Federal Government will rake in an estimated N16 billion in the next 10 years from sales of train service through automated ticketing platform.
Director General of the commission, Chidi Izuwah, made the revelation at the presentation of Full Business Scale Certificate for the concession of e-ticketing system to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi in Abuja, yesterday.
“You promised a couple of months that there is a solution to the chaos witnessed at the train stations. We are here today to present the full business certificate for the ticketing solution for Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC).
“What is interesting is that considering how popular the rail service is under the inspiration of the President Muhammadu Buhari, this transaction is for 10 years and over those 10 years, the financial model shows that NRC and the federal government will earn over N16 billion as revenue from the ticketing system.
“That will provide additional revenue for the government. So basically, we have turned a problem into an opportunity. This is a PPP where the private sector will invest money to develop, deploy, operate and integrate ticketing solution so Nigerians will be able to buy their own tickets the way it is done anywhere in the world.”