Nigeria’s Transport Ministry Says Tinubu Has Approved More NRC Coaches and Rail Surveillance Equipment

For the Nigerian Railway Corporation, the presidential approval covers both additional train coaches and surveillance and security equipment across the network. NRC staff are to be trained in operating and maintaining the new coaches and will be involved in assembling them, with the aim of building local maintenance capacity.

The Ministry links the surveillance programme to vandalism and banditry on the railway, citing a head-on collision on the Kaduna–Abuja corridor. The NRC has recruited a surveillance team that patrols its routes, and a railway tracking system has received approval in principle.

• President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a contract for additional Nigerian Railway Corporation train coaches and the acquisition of surveillance and security equipment, according to the Federal Ministry of Transportation.
• Permanent Secretary Engr. Adebiyi disclosed the approvals on 17 October 2026 during an inspection of the Kano–Daura–Katsina sections of the Kano–Maradi Railway Project.
• NRC staff are to be trained in the operation and maintenance of the new coaches and will be involved in assembling them.
• The NRC has recruited a surveillance team that patrols its routes regularly.
• A railway tracking system has received approval in principle, according to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Transportation and Mobility, Prince Adetokunbo Ademola Ade-John.
• Commissioning of the Kano–Maradi Railway Project is scheduled for December 2026.

Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Transportation says President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a contract for additional train coaches for the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) and has given the go-ahead for the acquisition of surveillance and security equipment across the country’s railway routes. Permanent Secretary Engr. Adebiyi made the disclosure on Saturday 17 October 2026 while inspecting the Kano–Daura–Katsina sections of the Kano–Maradi Railway Project, according to the Ministry.

Adebiyi said the Ministry intends NRC staff to be trained in the operation and maintenance of the new coaches, and he added: “They will be deeply involved in assembling the coaches to ease maintenance thereafter.” He said the aim is to build local technical capacity so that Nigerian personnel can carry out essential maintenance once the work is completed and handed over to the NRC.

On security, Adebiyi cited a head-on collision between two trains on the Kaduna–Abuja corridor, which he attributed to vandalism and banditry. He said the NRC has recruited a surveillance team that patrols its routes regularly. Separately, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Transportation and Mobility, Prince Adetokunbo Ademola Ade-John, said a railway tracking system had received approval in principle.

The inspection was intended to give the Ministry a firsthand view of implementation on the Kano–Maradi project, to identify outstanding technical, operational and logistical challenges, and to assess preparedness for commissioning, which is scheduled for December 2026.