Nigeria, Africa’s leading economy, after its grand space ambitions just commissioned its first high speed rail system. President Buhari indeed officially inaugurated the country’s and West Africa’s first high speed train on July 26, 2016.

The project which was partially executed by Nigeria’s former president, Jonathan Goodluck, was concretized with the help of a $849 million taken from a Chinese bank.

The infrastructure will reinforce Nigeria’s railway traffic. With a maximal speed of 150km/h, the train will for now connect Abuja to Kaduna in the North-West. “The Abuja-Kaduna train provides an alternative for transport between the federal capital and Kaduna state, a potential major corridor for industries, agricultural businesses and movement of persons,” said President Buhari.

Though extremely rapid, a high speed train is not generally affordable to all. In the present case however, Nigerian authorities said they would remediate to this. A first-class ticket thus cost €2 (FCFA1300) and €1.5 (FCFA975) for the second-class.

The authorities added that they would soon extend the train’s rail network to other towns across the country.

Alain Okpeitcha (Intern)