President Muhammadu Buhari will leave Abuja for South Africa today to participate in the Forum on China/Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg where he will ask China’s President Xi Jinping to fund rail and power projects urgently needed to diversify an economy hit hard by a plunge in oil prices.

The meeting would be a continuation of his interaction with Jinping which began in New York during the last General Assembly of the United Nations, UN.

The President would be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema; Minister of Transportation, Chubuike Amaechi; and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah to the forum which would commence on December 4 and end on December 5.

A statement by the presidential spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina, stated that during the meeting in New York, President Buhari had indicated to Xi Jinping that “he wanted China to re-commence stalled rail projects under new terms that would see China providing nearly all the financing required.”

The statement added that “of particular interest is the coastal railway project stretching for 1402 kilometres linking Lagos in the West with Calabar in the East; a project that is expected to be financed with 12 billion U.S Dollars Chinese loan and which will create about 200,000 jobs.”

Another rail project that will be up for renegotiation is the $8.3bn Lagos-Kano standard gauge modernization project, of which only a segment, Kaduna-Abuja has reached completion stage.

Outside from railways, President Buhari is also expected to discuss ways of kick-starting the 3,050 MW Mambila Power Station, considered to be a strategic project initiated in 1982 but has not taken off.

Adesina revealed that the Chinese President expressed the willingness of his country to finance the whole project through a special loan agreement.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/buhari-leaves-for-s-africa-today-to-discuss-railway-power-projects-with-chinas-president/


I love to hear such news and hope it comes to fruition even though I prefer to be neutral at times on Government policies due to previous disappointments.

What do y'all think about this?

Campaign is over.

Pls negotiate with contractors directly. We are tired of chop-chop people who are always there to secure their own share of the National cake.
3000 MegaWatt (equivalent of 3GigaWatt) will greatly improve our meagre 4000+ Mega Watt capacity.
Also a rail line linking Lagos to Calabar will always be a good addition for our transportation network and options. If it can be an electric rail system that supports cargo, i would love even more.

The Junketer is about to junket again.


One chance !
Nigerians eku iroju o.

good one Mr president. haters will have something to say

Outside from railways, President Buhari is also expected to discuss ways of kick-starting the 3,050 MW Mambila Power Station, considered to be a strategic project initiated in 1982 but has not taken off.




China will not undertake this one

kurt09:
Campaign is over.

Who's Campaigning. Mr. Buhari will not be in power when these projects are completed; so he can't take the credit. Besides, these are not new projects, he's re-negotiating the funding. The bane of past governments had been inability to follow up on projects conceptualized by their predecessors. We need the next President to have this man's vision and foresight.

Must we always beg China?

President Buhari had indicated to Xi Jinping that “he wanted China to re-commence stalled rail projects under new terms that would see China providing nearly all the financing required.”

The statement added that “of particular interest is the coastal railway project stretching for 1402 kilometres linking Lagos in the West with Calabar in the East; a project that is expected to be financed with 12 billion U.S Dollars Chinese loan and which will create about 200,000 jobs.”







You want an infrastructural loan from China to tune of $12bn dollars.

What would you think China will ask for in return?

kITATITA:

Who's Campaigning. Mr. Buhari will not be in power when these projects are completed; so he can't take the credit. Besides, these are not new projects, he's re-negotiating the funding. The bane of past governments had been inability to follow up on projects conceptualized by their predecessors. We need the next President to have this man's vision and foresight.

Someone who truncated the same contracts?

kITATITA:

Who's Campaigning. Mr. Buhari will not be in power when these projects are completed; so he can't take the credit. Besides, these are not new projects, he's re-negotiating the funding. The bane of past governments had been inability to follow up on projects conceptualized by their predecessors. We need the next President to have this man's vision and foresight.

Everybody who can fustrate these kind of projects wants to insert their own share into the project cost and they end up fustrating it. It ends up being a money sharing avenue.

d northerners keep on maginalizing d east, d rail will go from calarba to lagos and from lagos again to d north what about d east?

Nigerians and bad belle

The president travelled...they say he's juncketing all over without any tangible reasons

Now his purpose and mission to south Africa has been enumerated for all to be aware of, yet some people are still criticising him that the loan is too much

Was it not GEJ who went to China to borrow money to finance Kaduna-Abuja rail project with LOCOMOTIVE COACHES when other other countries who went for same loan were making use of modern fast railway coaches

igraman:
The Junketer is about to junket again.


One chance !
Nigerians eku iroju o.

Is he going for a picnic?

JingoOAU:
Nigerians and bad belle

The president travelled...they say he's juncketing all over without any tangible reasons

Now his purpose and mission to south Africa has been enumerated for all to be aware of, yet some people are still criticising him that the loan is too much

Was it not GEJ who went to China to borrow money to finance Kaduna-Abuja rail project with LOCOMOTIVE COACHES when other other countries who went for same loan were making use of modern fast railway coaches

And the same PMB that truncated the rail contracts is going back to beg China to fund the same contracts 100%.what do you think will be the conditions from china

Why the fraud Lagos calabar railway while all that is needed to resolve the Lagos congestion is a deep sea port in calabar, which would be cheaper than the rail line project.

Why the fraudulent Lagos calabar railway while all that is needed to resolve the Lagos congestion is a deep sea port in calabar, which would be cheaper than the rail line project.

Nice one

Thank God he going for sumtin meaningful dis time

baralatie:
President Buhari had indicated to Xi Jinping that “he wanted China to re-commence stalled rail projects under new terms that would see China providing nearly all the financing required.”

The statement added that “of particular interest is the coastal railway project stretching for 1402 kilometres linking Lagos in the West with Calabar in the East; a project that is expected to be financed with 12 billion U.S Dollars Chinese loan and which will create about 200,000 jobs.”







You want an infrastructural loan from China to tune of $12bn dollars.

What would you think China will ask for in return?

The interests that comes with the loan.

It also brings more influential capacity to China in future dealings involving Nigeria where China has interests.

China, by providing the loan can also deepen her strategic partnership in Africa and also be able to export some of her technologies to Africa's largest population.

kettykin:
Why the fraudulent Lagos calabar railway while all that is needed to resolve the Lagos congestion is a deep sea port in calabar, which would be cheaper than the rail line project.

A deep sea port for calabar in place of a rail!
Hmmmmm!
You have a very strong pointpoint
"The chicken or the eggs,which comes first"

kettykin:
Why the fraudulent Lagos calabar railway while all that is needed to resolve the Lagos congestion is a deep sea port in calabar, which would be cheaper than the rail line project.

This question is weird.
Are you saying that having a deep sea port in Calabar means that transporting/commuting between Lagos and Calabar will cease? Or that having a rail line linking both cities automatically makes having a deep sea port in Calabar becomes unviable?

Chai, there is God ooooo.

PassingShot:

The interests that comes with the loan.

It also brings more influential capacity to China in future dealings involving Nigeria where China has interests.

China, by providing the loan can also deepen her strategic partnership in Africa and also be able to export some of her technologies to Africa's largest population.

You are dodging the question!
What is China going to ask Nigeria in return for giving her 100% financing of her infrastructural loan.
The Chinese govt will not give you cash.it will channel $20bn through its own economy.
What does she want in return?

PassingShot:

The interests that comes with the loan.

It also brings more influential capacity to China in future dealings involving Nigeria where China has interests.

China, by providing the loan can also deepen her strategic partnership in Africa and also be able to export some of her technologies to Africa's largest population.

Well it does not matter anyway!
Mr president is in a tight corner and needs this infrastructural loan!
Gej started it and PMB will obviously want to see its continuation.
But 100% and a 1982 abandoned project is out of reach!
China will soften its stance and continue its last projects!
I hope it falls tthrough
Nigeria needs those rails very fast!

More power to your elbow sir....
Long live the president of Nigeria
Long live Nigeria

baralatie:

You are dodging the question!
What is China going to ask Nigeria in return for giving her 100% financing of her infrastructural loan.
The Chinese govt will not give you cash.it will channel $20bn through its own economy.
What does she want in return?

It's not "giving" as in gift. It's loan with interest.

StOla:

Is he going for a picnic?

Ask Sahara reporters ..okay ?

I'll love Nigerians to follow though on this project initiative and objectively discuss its gains, pros and cons with respect to loans etc

It's one of the laudable projects that is required for our national development if diligently executed.

Lets build our nation together for ourselves and our children.

This is a laudable one if it sees the light of day.

3000MW will definitely boost power production but will not solely solve the problem.
There is need to address issues of transmission and remove monopoly by DISCOS by opening up the market.
There is also need to overhaul NERC and replace Sam Amadi immediately.

The East-west coastal rail with seriously reduce pressure from our roads, make them last longer, reduce traffic jam and mostly safer. Even if it can only remove all Dangote truck from Nigerian roads.

Do good for good to come your way

The abandoned Lagos-Kano Rail will also be re-negotiated.

Like the poster above me said; I hope these projects see the light of the day.

Lets wait and see what the Chinese president says.

We need such modern rails (hopefully speed trains) with stopover on every major city along its path.