Madar (Niamey) - Niger's council of ministers, meeting on Thursday, 29 October 2026, under Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani, adopted a decree creating the Niger Rail Transport Company (Société Nigérienne de Transport par Rails, SNTR), according to the council's statement published on Friday, 30 October, by the state daily Le Sahel.
The company is part of the strategy to develop rail transport within the Confederation of Sahel States (AES), which groups Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. It is tasked with managing rail traffic in line with safety and security standards and providing a "reliable, safe and sustainable" rail service, and is set up as a mixed-economy company.
The council also created a coordination body for civil aviation security and facilitation, which will take over operational tasks at airports that have so far been shared by several services, including the gendarmerie, police and customs, under the coordination of the civil aviation agency, which keeps its supervisory role.
Other texts adopted include the creation of a national observatory to promote the consumption of local products, under the Prime Minister, a Niger scholarships agency and regional university services centres in each regional capital, as well as the transfer of technical oversight of the transit company NITRA to the finance minister.
The council also heard reports on matters including feasibility and technical studies for the Bamako-Ouagadougou-Niamey motorway, on its Niamey-Tera-Burkina Faso border section, and surfacing works on the Arlit-Assamaka-Algerian border road.
