General Electric on Thursday said it has handed over the leadership of a consortium chosen to run Nigeria\u2019s rail concession to South Africa\u2019s Transnet.<\/p>\n
The development, according to Reuters, came after the U.S. company decided to spin off its transport business.<\/p>\n
The railway concession project was worth around $2 billion for two lines connecting cities in the northern part of the country to others in the south.<\/p>\n
The concession was meant to cover about 3,500 km (2,200 miles) of existing narrow-gauge lines from the nation\u2019s commercial hub, Lagos, through to Kano in the north. It is also expected to extend from Port Harcourt in the South-south to Maiduguri, Borno State capital, in the North-east.<\/p>\n
The consortium led by GE had submitted the only bid for the project in partnership with Transnet CGETR.UL of South Africa, Dutch-based APM Terminals and China\u2019s Sinohydro Consortium.<\/p>\n
\u201cGE will be transitioning leadership of the International Consortium, selected to execute the Nigerian narrow-gauge railway concession, to Transnet,\u201d the company said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis development is in line with GE\u2019s decision to exit the Transportation business from its portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n
GE in its statement said Transnet has been a trusted partner for several decades and that it has confidence in its ability and that of the other consortium members \u2014 Dutch-based APM Terminals and China\u2019s Sinohydro Consortium \u2014 to execute on the rail concession project.<\/p>\n
Transnet has however not reacted to the development.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Thursday, Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi was quoted to have said that the pull out by GE was no setback for the railway project.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Lagos during a visit to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, the minister said that GE was withdrawing from the railway concession and handing it over to Transnet SOC Limited in line with its strategy of exiting the transportation business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
General Electric on Thursday said it has handed over the leadership of a consortium chosen to run Nigeria\u2019s rail concession to South Africa\u2019s Transnet. The development, according to Reuters, came after the U.S. company decided to spin off its transport business. The railway concession project was worth around $2 billion for two lines connecting cities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":94038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,15,2],"tags":[32457,46888,16807,6411,1426,46887],"yoast_head":"\n