Once complete, the railway will connect the Atlantic Ocean port city of Lagos to Kano, near the border with Niger, passing through the national capital of Abuja.
The railway replaces the Cape gauge Western Line built by the British in 1896–1927, which has a lower design capacity and is in a deteriorated condition.
Abuja was not on the national railway network, as it was purpose-built as a capital city after Nigeria became independent from Great Britain.
Railway supplies were being stolen by miscreants, forcing CCECC to build a corridor fence to secure the tracks.
[10][11] Construction was delayed by heavy rains in Spring 2018,[12] and the Nigerian government had to deploy soldiers to protect the railway workers from hoodlums and armed robbers.
[14] Progress was slowed in 2020 by the social distancing needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, as only 20 workers were present on construction sites that once held 200.
[16] Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka became a frequent passenger on the train, calling it "a very impressive work in progress considering the difficulty of really executing anything in this country.
[18][19] On 15 May 2018, the Nigerian Minister of Transportation signed a $6.68 billion contract with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to complete the remaining segments of the Lagos–Kano Standard Gauge Railway.
[20] In 1987, the Nigerian government awarded a contract to build the country's first standard gauge railway, linking the mines at Itakpe to the Ajaokuta Steel Mill and onwards to the port city of Warri.