New Transport Policy, Targets Integrated, Efficient Transport System – Shettima 

Vice president Kashim Shettima has said the new national land transport policy will target integrated, safer and more efficient transport system in Nigeria.

Representing the vice president at the event, the director-general of General Duties at the presidency, Aliyu Modibbo Umar said this was Nigeria’s first National Land Transport Policy, describing the framework as a major step towards building an integrated, efficient, safe, affordable and sustainable transportation system capable of supporting economic growth and national development.

He said transportation remained central to the nation’s economy because it connects workers, families, businesses, markets and communities.

The vice president also said the federal government’s transportation strategy was anchored on the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, stressing that the administration was determined to provide infrastructure capable of supporting a productive, competitive and interconnected economy.

In his goodwill remarks, immediate past minister of transportation, Senator Said Ahmed Alkali described the unveiling as a historic development, noting that the National Land Transport Policy was the first comprehensive policy of its kind for the transport sector since Nigeria’s independence.

Alkali commended President Bola Tinubu for creating an enabling environment for the Federal Ministry of Transportation to facilitate the policy’s approval by the Federal Executive Council on July 31, 2025, during his tenure as minister.

He said the absence of a comprehensive land transport policy had made it difficult for the Federal Ministry of Transportation to effectively regulate the sector, particularly in the face of emerging and increasingly complex transportation challenges.

According to him, the policy aligns with the administration’s eight-point priority agenda and provides a framework for developing a fast, safe, efficient, affordable, convenient, integrated and intermodal transport system.

In his address, the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Engr. Olufunso Adebiyi said the theme of the council was particularly relevant to the federal government’s efforts to build a transportation system capable of supporting economic growth, national connectivity and improved quality of life.

Adebiyi said integration meant ensuring that Nigeria’s different modes of transportation did not develop independently but functioned as components of a single national system.

“Our roads, railways, ports, inland waterways and urban transport systems must connect people and goods efficiently across the country, and increasingly, across our borders,” he said.

He identified the operational Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna railway corridors as part of the progress recorded towards that objective, while noting that work was progressing on the Kaduna-Kano segment of the Lagos-Kano Railway Modernisation Project.