Transportation Infrastructures: We Have A Long Way To Go – Minister

By Samuel Ohwovoriole

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has said that although the ministry has achieved a lot, there is still much to be done to meet the vision of the current administration.

The Minister stated this in Oron, Akwa Ibom State, at the three-day Ministerial Retreat organized by the Ministry for its management staff and top functionaries of its  Agencies.

Amaechi reminded staff of the ministry on the need to achieve the vision of the current administration’s commitment to fill the infrastructural deficit in the country.

“Going down memory lane, the Minister noted “it suffices to recall that at the last Retreat various resolutions were arrived at with different Committees constituted to propel the actualisation of those resolutions with a view to ascertaining the level of implementation.

While acknowledging the fact that a lot still needs to be done to meet the vision of the current administration, he said the Ministry was able to make remarkable achievements in critical areas such as Establishment of Wagon Assembly Plant in Kajola, Ogun State., Establishment of University of Transportation, Daura (construction ongoing), Commissioning of Warri-Itakpe railway lines, Commencement of the commercial test run of the Lagos-Ibadan rail lines, Appreciable work on the Deep Blue project to combat insecurity challenges in the Gulf of Guinea, and Groundbreaking ceremony of Kano-Maradi rail line.

Speaking further he said, the “I am aware, that our Meduim-Term National Development Plan (MTDNP 2021-2025) high level goal is to ‘Build an Effective, Efficient, Intermodal, Safe, Reliable, Affordable and  Sustainable Transportation System contributing positively to the growth of the Nigerian Economy’ and our Ministerial mandate 2019-2023 are our collective responsibility to ensure that the sector contributes its quota to National Development,” he said.

Minister of State for Transportation, Sen. Gbemisola Saraki, speaking through the Permanent Secretary, of the ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, who represented her enjoined the participants to leverage on the platform of the retreat to brainstorm, design and develop new strategies and initiatives and collectively align with the vision of President Muhammad Buhari to change the course of the transportation sector to become more productive, competitive in line with the current global trend.

She advised participants to develop implementable strategies for the growth of the transport sector “engender realistic strategies to enable our vision for a safe, efficient, affordable and seamless transportation become a reality.”

Earlier in her address, Magdalene Ajani, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, said that “the retreat is a veritable platform for top management of the Ministry and its agencies to cross-fertilize ideas on how to galvanise the Transportation sector to meet the set goals and objectives of the Ministry.”

She said, “transportation has proven to be one of the critical factors of economic development and prosperity and Nigeria can leverage on that based on its geographical position, its large domestic market and industrial capacity to become the transportation hub for Africa.”

She was confident that the Ministry and its Agencies will continue to provide the necessary support towards achieving all the deliverables assigned to the Minister and the Ministry and even surpass the targets set for it by the current administration as it relates to the Nigeria Agenda 2050 plan currently being developed to replace the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and Vision 20:2020.

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