The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said President Muhammadu Buhari would negotiate for fresh loans with the Chinese government.

Mohammed also said the government must resort to borrowing, in order to finance the 2016 Budget, noting that government revenue had diminished drastically, owing to the fall of crude oil in the international market.

The president who is on a working visit to China is expected to attract more investors from China to Nigeria.

The minister who spoke yesterday evening on a current affair programme of Channels Television, Politics Today, noted that the borrowed funds would be deployed into capital projects, such as road, power and agriculture.

“Borrowing will be used for capital expenditure, government must borrow, if you look at the situation we are in. Crude which used to sell for over $100 per barrel, now sells for less than $40, and our overheads are the same, infrastructures are increasing and we have to maintain them,” the minister said.

When pointedly asked, if the government is currently serving any loan with Chinese government, the minister said the loans are long term loans which are serviced within a period of 30 to 40 years.

“When we talk about Nigeria’s debt profile, it is the borrowing from 1960, these loans are not short term loans, they are loans serviceable for a period of about 40 years,” he said.
Speaking on the lingering fuel scarcity rocking the nation, the minister promised that the ugly situation would subside, as he said 1,300 trucks loaded with petrol would discharge fuel at filling stations from today.

“We have been able to bring the situation back to normal, 1300 trucks will supply fuel all over Nigeria,” he said.

The minister however, urged Nigerians to exercise patience with the government, as he assured that the change Nigerians voted for would manifest eventually.
“The change Nigerians voted for is real, the challenges we are facing is temporal, the change will come,” the minister said.

OKDnigeria:
Why borrow again to fund the budget?
I tot we're told dat govt has recovered abt 3 trillion naira thro d TSA? can't dat money be used to fund d budget? or was it another propaganda from d stable of d APC??

opalu:
China go dey feel like one big oga for their mind now.
I once supervised a water treatment project handled by Chinese company for Lagos state government.
These guys don't know JACK. They packed their apprentices inside plane send them to Nigeria as expatriates. Can u imagine I caught them welding reinforcements head-to-head instead of lapping? And many other professional atrocities

Yet when they give our governments loans, they give us on the condition that we must give their companies the projects to handle. And if the project costs 20B, they charge us 42B and that we pay so so percentage before they release the balance. And the percentage will be equal to 20B! Hence Nigeria has been raped left right and center.

NB: No Chinese or Government person should call my line for this post. I am free to make my views known

opalu:
China go dey feel like one big oga for their mind now.
I once supervised a water treatment project handled by Chinese company for Lagos state government.
These guys don't know JACK. They packed their apprentices inside plane send them to Nigeria as expatriates. Can u imagine I caught them welding reinforcements head-to-head instead of lapping? And many other professional atrocities

Yet when they give our governments loans, they give us on the condition that we must give their companies the projects to handle. And if the project costs 20B, they charge us 42B and that we pay so so percentage before they release the balance. And the percentage will be equal to 20B! Hence Nigeria has been raped left right and center.

NB: No Chinese or Government person should call my line for this post. I am free to make my views known