Insecurity: Rail Passenger Traffic Drops By 49.73%

Passenger traffic on the Nigerian Railway Corporation operated rail transport services dropped by a whopping 49.73 per cent in the fourth quarter 2023, as security challenges kept many commuters away.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Rail Transportation Data for fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023 indicated that the number of rail transport passengers in Q4 2023 stood at 672,198. This was lower than the 1,337,108 recorded in Q4 2022, representing a decline of 49.73 per cent.

The report also showed that  total revenue generated from passengers in Q4 stood at N1.07 billion compared with the N1.15 billion generated in Q4 of 2022, representing a decrease of 7.51 per cent.

Similarly, it showed that N423.22 million was collected in Q4 2023 as revenue from goods/ cargos, this increased by 169.16 per cent from N157.23 million received in Q4 2022.

“Also, other receipts grew by 3.02 per cent from the N382.17 million recorded in Q4 2022 to N393.72 million recorded in Q4 2023.

It said on an annual basis, the number of rail transport passengers decreased by 32.08 per cent, from 3,212,948 recorded in 2022 to 2,182,388 recorded in 2023.

The NBS said the revenue received from passengers declined by 2.64 per cent in 2023 from the N4,546,342,050 recorded in 2022 to N4,426,495,760 in 2023.

“However, the volume of cargo and revenue from cargo in 2023 increased by 102.04 per cent and 144.32 per cent respectively, compared with 2022,” the report said.