By Demi Adeniyi
The Kajola Wagon Assembly plant would soon be inaugurated by the Federal Government, Minister of Transportation, Muazu Jaji Sambo, said on Thursday.
The groundbreaking ceremony of the Kajola Assembly Plant, located in Ogun State, (which has been named the Yemi Osinbajo Station), was performed by the Vice president Prof Yemi Osinbajo, in 2019.
Mr Sambo who was at the plant area as part of his inspection tour of all standard gauge facilities between Lagos and Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, expressed happiness at the pace of work at the Kajola.
Addressing reporters on the import of the facility, the Minister said the assembly plant would create room for knowledge transfer and enable Nigerians to learn how to assemble and eventually build train wagons locally.
Ultimately, having the facility locally means that Nigeria would no longer be importing wagons from China, as we would be able to manufacture rolling stocks that would be consumed locally and may even be able to export to the African market as more African countries join the league of train transit nations.
“We don’t need to import the wagons into the country anymore. There is also an economic benefit to the establishment of the rolling stock. Nigerians will also be learning how to build the wagon, locomotives, coaches and by so doing will create employment while improving the capacity of the train wagons,” stated the minister.
He added, “For us to increase the capacity of the railway, we need the wagons. We need to repair and assemble wagons. The technology that is being done abroad will be replicated in Nigeria and many jobs will be created for the youths.”
Sunrise recalled that the former Minister of Transportation Mr Rotimi Amaechi who berthed the Kajola Assembly plant had told the Vice President that the facility was the initiative of the Chinese Government as part of the country’s support for Nigeria’s march to join the league of modernized train systems becoming one of the few nations in Africa to do so.
He said the plant when completed would be able to serve not only the Nigeria market but the emerging markets in Africa and other parts of the world.
Besides the assembly of wagons, the plant which he said is scalable, would be able to manufacture train spare parts, thereby reducing the dependence on importation of parts for the rolling stocks for the train operations, adding that this would further create thousands of jobs in engineering, fabrication, moulding, and other direct and indirect jobs.