The Senate has began the probe of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi<\/p>\n
Amaechi over the concession of western (Lagos-Kano) and Eastern (Port
\nHarcourt – Maiduguri) rail lines to General Electric company, based in the
\nUnited States (US) .<\/p>\n
The probe was sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Senator
\nAlbert Akpan (PDP, Akwa-Ibom Northeast) on the concession of rail lines
\nwith a potential of $2billion.<\/p>\n
Akpan told the Senate that the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), and the
\nNigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (NAIF) upon the approval of the
\nNational Council on Privatization (NPC) in April 2015, developed a roadmap
\nfor the concessioning of the rail lines.<\/p>\n
He said the BPE has already engaged the Global Infrastructure Facility
\n(GIF) and the World Bank in discussions on accessing funding for
\ntransactions Advisers while the Ministry of Transport has formally
\nappointed Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Greenwich as financial
\nAdvisers for the same purpose.<\/p>\n
He said in August, this year, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo
\ninaugurated the steering and Technical committee in line with the
\nprovision of section 11(k) of the Public Enterprises (Privatisation and
\nCommercialisation) Act 1999 to fast track the process of the concession of
\nthe rail lines.<\/p>\n
He quoted Amaechi as saying in June that the General Electric has already
\nbeen engaged for the project.<\/p>\n
” It is the responsibility of the steering and technical committees of the
\nNPC inaugurated by the Vice president in August 2016 to negotiate with
\npotential bidders for this concession, how then did the Ministry of
\nTransport engage General Electric Company as far back as June, 2016, “he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
He said the Ministry of Transport has violated the provisions of the
\nPublic Enterprises (Privatization and Commercialization) Act, 1999 by
\nunilaterally engaging the General Electric (GE) for the concession.<\/p>\n
The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who presided over the plenary
\nmandated the Senate Committees on Privatization, Land Transport, Finance,
\nSpecial Duties, Trade and Investment, Judiciary and Anti-Corruption and
\nFinancial Crimes to investigate the procedure adopted in the engagement of
\nGeneral Electric for the concession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senate has began the probe of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi over the concession of western (Lagos-Kano) and Eastern (Port Harcourt – Maiduguri) rail lines to General Electric…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"yoast_head":"\n