Rail passenger revenue exceeds FG’s N7bn target by 11%

2026-03-26 - 06:02

By Elizabeth Adegbesan Revenue generated from rail passengers in 2025 exceeded the Federal Government’s (FG) N7.01 billion target by 11 percent. Recall that in February 2025 the FG set a target of generating N7.01 billion in revenue from rail passengers by the end of 2025 with the aim of expanding services and recovering from previous security and operational challenges. To realize these aims, the FG allocated N41.49 billion to rail infrastructure and modernization projects in the 2025 budget, with funds specifically for security surveillance systems on routes like Abuja (Idu)-Kaduna following the previous years insecurity and derailment incidents recorded. Vanguard analysis of data from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, Rail Revenue Report for the period showed that revenue from passengers stood at N7.77 billion in 2025 rising by 15.6 percent year-on-year (YoY) from N6.72 billion in 2024. Further analysis showed that N2.29 billion was collected for goods/cargo conveyed through rail, representing a 17.4 percent YoY increase from N1.95 billion collected in 2024. However, revenue from other receipts fell by 59.5 percent YoY to N606.5 million in 2025 from N1.5 billion in 2024. Despite this decline, total rail revenue shot up by 4.9 percent to N10.67 billion in 2025 from N10.17 billion in 2024. Trend analysis showed that rail revenue increased to N3.42 billion in the second quarter of 2025 (Q2’25) from N2.72 billion in Q1’25. It however declined by 28.6 percent to N2.44 billion in Q3’25 as a result of a 14.9 percent, 40.7 percent and 88.2 percent decline in revenue from passengers, cargoes/goods and other receipts respectively. The downward trend continued in Q4’25, where rail revenue declined by 15.16 percent to N2.07 billion due to a decline in passengers and cargo/goods revenues.