The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), yesterday, said at the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) Summit organised in Lagos last Tuesday it signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, with a United States-based firm, Atlanta Global Resources Inc., AGRI to build a railway network that will connect the nine states of the Niger Delta region..
In a statement to clarify the deal, it said: “We appreciates the need to be seen to be accountable and transparent as it collaborates with its stakeholders in the arduous task of developing the Niger Delta region. This foundational process may have been misconstrued by some persons to mean that the NDDC has signed the Engineering, Procurement and Construction, EPC, contract. We have been inundated with enquiries over what is ordinarily one of the preliminary steps necessary for the actualization of a partnership arrangement with the private sector.
“All we signed at the PPP Summit was a basic MOU to commence the preliminary processes of feasibility and viability of the rail project. It did not include any agreement on details.
“ It is only after the preliminary studies, that the finance appraisals will be done and then the civil engineering procurements and the locomotive hardware will be considered. For those who may not know, the Atlanta Global Resources Inc deals with financing for Industrial products, infrastructure projects, agriculture equipment, capital equipment financing etc.
They came recommended by a reliable US financial institution, especially for the deployment of US-produced locomotives. “