Reason Why Buhari’s Govt Plans To Borrow More Money From China, Portugal, Turkey

The federal government on Thursday, November 3 told the National Assembly that it hoped to complete the ongoing rail projects across the country with multi-billion dollar loans from financial institutions based in China, Portugal and Turkey.

According to the federal government, it was committed to the implementation of the Nigeria railway modernization project.

Speaking when he appeared before the joint National Assembly committee on land and marine transport, chaired by Senator Danjuma Goje, minister of transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo said that the railway network was being progressively expanded.

He said it was through yearly budgetary appropriations since the federal government was facing challenges in securing counterpart funding through loans.

Vanguard newspaper quoted him as saying: “Currently, the implementation of the Kaduna-Kano, Port Harcourt to Maiduguri and Kano – Maradi segments of the railway modernization is ongoing with the federal government counterpart funding in the 2022 appropriation.

“The ministry hopes that the federal ministry of finance concludes negotiation of the loans with infrastructure development finance institutions of the Chinese, Portuguese and Turkish origin to implement the projects.

“To ensure finalising and signing of the loan agreements, evidence of source of funding of the balance of the advance payment and other aspects of work to be financed directly by the federal government has to be made available to these financial institutions.”

The minister explained that the Lagos-Ibadan segment of the Lagos-Kano and Itakpe to Warri railway projects were fully operational and receiving patronage from the general public. He added that to reach practical completion on the projects, some aspects of works, including construction of overpass bridges, connection to the national grid and other ancillary provisions had to be completed.

He said:

“Adequate funds need to be provided in the 2023 budget to facilitate the practical completion of the projects.” The minister who lamented the sad occurrence on the Abuja-Kaduna rail incident earlier in the year, said that plans were ongoing to resume service there.

Sambo who explained that necessary security gadgets would be installed to monitor the line and forestall a reoccurrence, expressed the hope that members of the National Assembly would assist the ministry in achieving the plan.

Edujandon.com had earlier reported that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently disclosed Nigeria attracted $1.73 billion from foreign investors, companies in the third quarter of last year (Q3’21).

The amount is a 97 per cent improvement from the $875.62 million reported in the second quarter of 2021. NBS gave the numbers in its released Capital Importation Report for Q3’21 published on its website.

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