Niger adopts draft decree creating rail transport company

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Editorial responsibility: Paul Arnaud DEGUENON, journalist and business development expert.

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SNTR is to manage rail traffic as a mixed-economy company. This institutional step forms part of the AES rail strategy.

The Nigerien government adopted, at the Council of Ministers on 29 October, the draft decree creating the Nigerien Rail Transport Company, or SNTR. The future operator is to manage rail traffic.

Planned as a mixed-economy company, the SNTR will have to provide a reliable and sustainable service that complies with safety and security standards. The statement links its creation to the rail development strategy of the Confederation of Sahel States.

The decision comes as Niger presents rail as a tool for opening up the landlocked country and fostering regional integration. Creating the operator is an institutional step, but does not in itself mean that a line has been put into operation.

At his press briefing on 7 September, the Minister of Equipment and Infrastructure, Salissou Mahaman Salissou, had said that public-private partnership negotiations were under way with the consortium ORAO Engineering Niger SA for the Niamey–Dosso–Konni–Maradi link. He had said he wanted to start with Niamey–Dosso, a 140 km section for which studies were available.

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