The Nigerian rail system generated a revenue of N1.69 billion from passengers in the second quarter of 2024, reflecting a notable 53.14 percent increase compared to the N1.10 billion recorded during the same period in 2023.
This information was revealed in a report by the National Bureau of Statistics released on Thursday.
The report highlighted that a total of 689,263 passengers utilized the rail service in Q2 2024, representing a growth rate of 45.38 percent compared to the 474,117 passengers recorded in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
In addition to passenger revenue, the rail system saw a significant boost in freight operations. The volume of goods transported via rail surged to 143,759 tons in Q2 2024, a sharp rise from the 56,936 tons reported in Q2 2023.
The Nigerian Railway Corporation also recorded an increase in the volume of goods moved through pipelines.
In Q2 2024, a total of 5,940 tons were transported, a marked improvement from the 2,856 tons moved in the same period of the previous year.
Revenue from goods transported via rail reached N537.36 million in Q2 2024, an impressive 206.68 percent increase compared to N175.22 million in Q2 2023.
Similarly, the movement of goods through pipelines contributed N42.08 million in revenue, up from N12.81 million in Q2 2023.
Other sources of revenue for the NRC, including services and miscellaneous activities, generated N994.68 million in Q2 2024. This represents a staggering 5,206.68 percent increase from the N18.74 million recorded in the same quarter last year.
However, the financial burden of railway infrastructure continues to weigh heavily on the country’s economy.
In the first quarter of 2024, Nigeria spent significantly more on servicing its railway debt than it earned from rail services, with expenditure on debt servicing surpassing revenue by 2,470 percent.
In 2023, the Nigerian Railway Corporation’s total passenger revenue stood at N1.07 billion, underscoring the ongoing financial challenges facing the nation’s rail sector despite the recent gains in revenue and service utilization.
