By Adeyinka Aderibigbe
President Muhammadu Buhari will on Monday inaugurate the Kajola Wagon Assembly Plant, in Ogun State.
The Minister of Transportation Engr Jaji Mu’azu Sambo, the Minister of State for Transportation Adewale Adewole Adegoroye, will lead other top government functionaries and management of the Federal Ministry of Transportation which would be led by the Permanent Secretary Dr Magdalene Ajani, and the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation Engr Fidet Freeborn Okhiria, to host President Muhammadu Buhari.
The rail wagon Assembly plant, the first on the African continent is a $2.4million project, is one of the two projects donated by the Chinese government through the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), to help grow the railway industry not only in Nigeria, but in the African continent.
The second project, is the University of Transportation, sited in President Buhari’s country home, Daura, Katsina State. President Buhari signed the legal instrument establishing the specialist university in February 2023.
The Nation recalled that the foundation of the Kajola Assembly plant was laid by the Acting President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, (as he then was) in 2017, few months into the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge railway project.
The Wagon Assembly plant was conceived to commence production of spare parts in its first phase while, the second phase is meant to come up with the assembly of wagons and coaches. It is meant to serve the African and other similar new markets that may deserve the Chinese technology.
The inauguration is expected to take place at 12 noon, shortly after inaugurating the Dangote Refinery, the world largest single train refinery plant that is expected to produce 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The Kajola Assembly plant is expected to generate about 5,000 jobs and further help in diversifying the country’s economy from concentrating on oil revenue.
Flagging the project take-off six years ago, Osinbajo said the project would be a catalyst for the growth of the economy, boost local content growth, even as it signals another commitment by the Chinese government in “technology transfer” and ensuring that Nigerian engineers and other auxillary workers are trained in all gamut of the railway engineering and maintenance.
With the inauguration, Nigeria would be able to source locally parts needed to run the railway operation without recourse to sourcing them from China and elsewhere.
The Kajola project will be another audacious project by the Buhari administration to expand the railway system and ensure that successive administration build on the railway modernisation master plan, which started in 2002 and meant to transform the nation’s railway architecture by 2027.
The wagon project will further engrain China as a reliable and dependable development partner that has had over 40 decades of partnership with Nigeria on the sustenance of the railway development.
With a population of over 200 million, Nigeria is best suited to serve as a railway hub not only in West Africa sub region, but also the African continent and a reliable partner of the Asian country, which has led the way in rail development for the movement of persons and goods.