Tag Archives: Concession

GE Confirms ‘Keen Interest’ in $2 billion Nigeria Railway Concession

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General Electric (GE) confirmed its a “keen interest” in acquiring a Nigeria railway concession project worth around $2 billion, the U.S. company said on Monday.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said this month that GE would be investing $2.2 billion in a concession to revamp, provide rolling stock, and manage some of the country’s railways.

“Given the size and scope of the proposed project, it is likely that the debt and equity commitments required from lenders, consortium partners and other co-developers will be in the range of $2 billion or more,” GE said in a statement mailed to Reuters.

It said the concession was in the formal procurement process.

Nigeria has been looking for partners to overhaul its aging railway system, which was mainly built by British colonial rulers before the country’s independence in 1960.

The West African nation has also signed two deals worth around $5 billion with China Civil Engineering Construction Corp (CCECC), part of China’s state-owned railway construction firm, to modernize and build railways in the north and south of the country, the Nigerian transport ministry said last month.

Growth in Nigeria – an OPEC member whose economy has slipped into recession for the first time in more than 20 years after being hammered by low oil prices – has been stunted for decades by a lack of investment in roads and railways.

GE said the railway concession project came on top of around $150 million the firm was currently spending on capital expenditures in Nigeria as cited by a senior company executive last week.

Aviation union advises FG to halt airports concession plan

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The National Union of Air Transport Employees has urged the Federal Government to immediately halt its plan to concession the four major airports in the country.

The union made this known in an eight-point communique issued at its National Executive Council meeting held in Ilorin, Kwara.

A copy of the communique which was signed by NUATE’s General Secretary, Olayinka Abioye, was made available to newsmen in Lagos on Thursday.

The Minister of State for Aviation, Capt. Hadi Sirika, had on September 6, told newsmen that there was no going back on the concession of the Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt Airports.

Sirika had argued that the move would ensure that the airports were properly managed, while the government would still retain their ownership.

Abioye’s communique faulted the plan to concession the four airports which it described as the cash-cow out of the 22 airports owned by the Federal Government.

Abioye said: “The NEC in-session therefore calls for immediate stoppage of the concession of Nigerian airports to avoid industrial crisis that may arise as the government has failed to carry along stakeholders on this germane matter.”

He urged the aviation agencies, including the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency to improve the welfare of their workers.

Abioye’ also advised government to appoint a substantive managing director for NAMA and restructure its directorates in consonance with the provisions of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

On the state of the economy, the communique advised the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to take more concrete steps toward alleviating poverty across the nation.

He also stated: “The NEC in-session sympathises with the government over the continued slide to recession of the nation’s economy but encourages it to remain focused in its quest for nation building.

“This can be achieved by engaging more in social dialogue with critical stakeholders in the country and setting the machinery in motion to deploy experts into freeing our economy from the jaws of economic recession.”