The NRC is responsible for rail services across the country – both for freight and passengers – with little participation from the private sector, as most intercity rail routes are not commercially viable. According to the latest data from the NBS, the rail system carried 2.6m passengers in 2017, 3m in 2018 and 723,995 in the first quarter of 2019. Revenue generated from passenger tickets amounted to N1.2bn ($3.2m) and N1.9bn ($5.1m) for 2017 and 2018, respectively, and N520.8m ($1.4m) for the first three months of 2019.