Nigeria seeks Chinese rail funds agreement

The Nigerian government has concluded plans to borrow $6.1 billion from Chinese Exim Bank to complete all rail projects in the country by 2019. The Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi made the remarks during the budget debate in the National Assembly in the capital Abuja on Monday. Amaechi said the government had targeted the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan, KanoKaduna rail projects and the first phase of the Coastal Rail (Lagos-Calabar) in the 2017 budget. The minister told lawmakers that President Muhammadu Buhari insisted that all rail projects in the country, which had been awarded by previous administrations, must be revived and completed on or before December 2019.