President Buhari To Leave For South Africa Tomorrow

President Buhari will leave for South Africa
tomorrow December 3rd to participate in
the Forum on China/Africa Cooperation
(FOCAC).

A statement issued by the Special Assistant
to the President on Media and Publicity,
Garba Shehu, says that during the forum
Buhari will have a meeting with Chinese
president, Xi Jinping, on how to re-
commence stalled rail projects under new
terms that would see China providing
nearly all the financing required.

The statement in part reads
“Of particular interest is the coastal railway
project stretching for 1,402 kilometres
linking Lagos in the west with Calabar in
the South; a project that is expected to be
financed with $12 billion 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 modernisation project, of
which only a segment, Kaduna-Abuja, had
reached completion stage.

President Buhari is also expected to discuss
ways of removing all obstacles in the way
of the 3,050 MW Mambila Power Station,
considered a strategic project which was
conceived in 1982 but has not taken off.

The Chinese president had informed
President Buhari of the willingness of his
country to finance the whole project
through a special loan agreement,” the
statement said.

Those to accompany him on the trip are
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey
Onyema; Minister of Transportation,
Chubuike Amaechi; and the Minister of
Industry, Trade and Investment,
Okechukwu Enelamah. They are expected
back to the country on Saturday December
5th.