by Usman Alabi

The recent transportation of cows via train from the north down to Lagos is a welcome development and long awaited one at that, no thanks to the belated resuscitation of the train transport sector in the country. This would bring about a faster integration of the northern economy to the southern economy; this might just be the magic wand to facilitate the much talked about economic diversification which has eluded the country just because of infrastructural gap.

Before this, it takes several weeks to get cows and other livestock transported to the south because of bad road and other factors. It does not only take more time but also cost more, in some cases; some of the cows die on the road either due to accident or fatigue. With this development cows can make the market even ahead of demand and reduce the amount of backlog of this livestock waiting to be transported down to the south.

We can begin to talk about the two major factors that sets economies on the path of development which are quality of delivery and speed of delivery, the world is a global village, it is important that livestock gets to the point of processing in time and in good shape. This train system of transporting cows opens up the northern region like never before especially if it is also considered for transporting farm produce from the north to anywhere in the country, it integrates the various regions of the economy, an agriculture reliant north with a service and potentially industrial south, it can also bring about what is called a forward and backward linkage, that is endless supply of agricultural produce in the north delivered on schedule could also lead to the springing up of processing industries in other parts of the country.

Another implication is that if properly managed, the private sector might see it as an opportunity to harness the investment opportunities inherent in that sector given the fact that it has the capacity of becoming a whole new economic subsector capable of generating employment for many, and revenue for the government.

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Isime Esene