ICRC: FG To Earn N140bn On E-Ticketing

The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) says the federal government will earn up to N140 billion on e-ticket sales in 10 years from concessions of ticketing on the Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri rail services.

Michael Ohiani, The acting director general of ICRC, disclosed this while presenting the full business case (FBC) certificates on both services to the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, in Abuja.

The concession will be a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) regulated by ICRC.

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Ohiani says “The concession is for 10 years, and it is going to generate over N140bn to the federal government. And more importantly, it will create over N3,000 job opportunities, both direct and indirect,”.

He noted that with the FBC, “The next step is to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to deliver the project and the minister will also take it to FEC for approval and the ministry of justice will also clear it.”

The e-ticketing concession for Abuja-Kaduna rail facility was awarded to Secure ID for N900m over a period of 10 years.

Amaechi added that the benefit of e-ticketing was that the government would earn more on the service.

“On Abuja-Kaduna rail service, our revenues rose from over N100m to over N400m monthly. So, there is an improvement in even the number of coaches we put on the service. We have reduced wastage”, he says.

Commenting on ticket racketeering, the minister further explained that, “But I disagree with the public that there is still ticket racketeering on Abuja-Kaduna.

“I have spoken with the company in charge of the e-ticketing on Abuja-Kaduna, but I have also told them to take over the identification of passengers. Going forward, passengers’ names must match their ticket details.

“The National Assembly told me the NRC does not crosscheck the names on the tickets and the identity cards. So, I will direct the NRC to allow the company to do it. This is also about security.

“If we are able to identify all passengers, we can reduce security crises. All these will be sorted out when we go to cabinet for approval of security gadgets on the rail tracks.”