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India offers Nigeria $5bn line of credit

Published

6 years ago

January 22, 2019

Nigeria can explore $ 5 bn line of credit with low interest rate from India , the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria , Abhay Thakur , has said.
Thakur made the disclosure when he visited the Minister of Communications , Adebayo Shittu, according to a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Monday.

He said that the Prime Minister of India made available to Africa $ 10 bn credit line during India – Africa Forum Summit out of which only fifty per cent had been utilised .

The Indian envoy added that Nigeria had the opportunity to explore the credit line which had an interest rate of only 1 . 75 per cent .

“This is a good facility which to my knowledge half of it has just been utilised and for Nigeria , we can enhance our areas of collaboration, ” the envoy said.

Thakur said India was making moves to upgrade the bilateral agreement existing between both countries in the areas of human capacity development, e-government, industrialisation and Information and Communications Technology .

Responding, Shittu said India was one of the best countries Nigeria had enjoyed a relationship with in terms of partnership.

Shittu said, “ In the area of bilateral agreement, we can raise a team to work on crucial areas and look at the details and appraise what we can do on low hanging fruit that would be beneficial to both countries .

“A lot of Indian companies had often indicated interest to invest in Nigeria by way of establishing industries but rarely translate such into action , hence , the need to encourage them to translate such interest into reality. ”

The minister called on the envoy to encourage India investors to establish a 5 G village in Nigeria and also partner with stakeholders in building the proposed ICT Park in Abuja which is expected to be located in a free trade zone that would add beauty and elegance to the country as well as boost revenue base of the investors .