LAGOS, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The University of Transportation being constructed by the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) at Daura in Kastina state would boost the transfer of technology from China to Nigeria, said Rotimi Amaechi, the minister of transportation.

In a statement made available to Xinhua on Thursday, Ameachi said the university would domesticate railway engineering and impact Nigerians with the technical know-how on train manufacturing and servicing.

The construction work on the university project commenced in December 2019, and the CCECC is building the university as part of its corporate social responsibility.

When completed, the University of Transportation will focus on research and development of human capital for the country's transport sector. It is expected to mark a new level of growth, and boost economic and educational development in Africa's largest economy.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, while attending the project's ground-breaking ceremony, said it will provide technical skills, enhance managerial capacity and pave way for innovation in Nigeria's transport system, as well as create more job opportunities.

"The key to the development of any nation is education. So, if we are building transport technology in Daura, essentially, there will be a transfer of technology from the Chinese to Nigerians," the minister said.

Nigerian government aspires to modernize its aging railway lines to facilitate economic corridors across the country. The CCECC is currently build a 156 km standard gauge railway connecting the economic hub Lagos and Ibadan, the important industrial town in southwest.

The Lagos-Ibadan railway is the second leg of Nigeria's much more ambitious Lagos-Kano Railway Modernization Project which once completed will form a more than 1300 km long railway corridor across the country. The first leg, the 186 km Abuja-Kaduna railway, has been in operation since July 2016.