After a hiatus of a number of years, China has resumed lending for Nigerian rail improvement with an preliminary $253.7m mortgage accepted by the China Improvement Financial institution for the Kaduna-Kano railway, the financial institution introduced on 7 January.
The 203km standard-gauge line will join Nigeria’s second-largest metropolis – Kano, inhabitants 4 million, positioned close to the Niger border within the north – to Kaduna, a metropolis of some 760,000 in central Nigeria.
It’s one of many lacking hyperlinks in an extended north-south hall in improvement for over a decade.
The Kaduna-Kano line’s whole price is estimated to be $1.2bn, with China offering 85% of the financing and the remainder coming from the Nigerian authorities, South China Morning Publish experiences.
State-owned agency China Civil Engineering Development Company (CCECC) will construct the road. It’s now Nigeria’s largest contractor, based on the Publish.
Citing a neighborhood supply, the Publish stated the brand new line would join two earlier Chinese language funded north-south railways.
One, completed in 2016, hyperlinks the capital Abuja to Kaduna. The opposite linking Lagos on the coast to Nigeria’s third-largest metropolis, Ibadan, began working in 2020.
China Eximbank funded each of these, and it had supposed to fund the Kaduna-Kano line, however pulled away from the challenge in 2020, citing the Covid-19 pandemic and considerations about Nigeria’s capability to repay the mortgage, the Publish notes.
Its supply informed the Publish that the shift suggests China thinks the brand new line will succeed commercially.
China Improvement Financial institution loans have a better rate of interest than Eximbank’s, however the supply stated the financial institution used the euro, which has a decrease benchmark rate of interest, to slim the hole.
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Additional studying:
- Nigeria to start out designing 1,000km north-south freeway
The submit China resumes funding for Nigerian rail with $254m mortgage appeared first on International Development Assessment.
