FG Plans To Borrow N5.9tn To Finance Rail Lines

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Friday, June 11th, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Federal government is presently negotiating a fresh $14.4 billion loan which is about N5.9 trillion to finance two rail lines in the country.

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, made this known in an interview with Bloomberg.

According to the minister, Standard Chartered Plc, a British multinational bank will fund the project despite previously announcing the state-owned Export-Import Bank of China.

The two rail projects are the upgrade of the eastern line that links Port Harcourt with Maiduguri and the extension of the Lagos-Ibadan rail line to Kano.

“We’ve moved away from China in some of our projects,” the minister was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

He also disclosed that Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, is “overseeing the talks with the emerging markets-focused financial institution about arranging the infrastructure loans”.

It could be recalled that in 2017 President Buhari had announced that the state-owned Export-Import Bank of China “would shortly approve” a $3.5 billion loan to help begin building the 1,400-kilometer (870-mile) standard-gauge line.

According to speculations, Nigeria’s decision not to borrow from China was to limit the country’s “dependence” to China.