31 March 2008
Lagos — The Federal Government said yesterday in Abuja that the Chinese government has signed agreements with Nigeria to invest over N1 trillion to buoy the country's economy.
The Minister of Finance, Dr Samshudeen Usman, said that about N340 billion (US 2 billion dollars) agreement was signed as concessionary loan, while another N80 billion (US 0.5 billion dollars) was clarified as concessionary to be invested in the country.
The Minister, who spoke to newsmen on the details of President Umaru Yar' Ardua's visit to China a forthnight ago, said the discussions in China were to woo investors into key sectors of the economy, especially in improving infrastructure.
He said all the loans fall into categories of long-term repayments at low interest rates, as contained in the country's new policy to check debt overhangs.
"A grant agreement was signed between the Nigerian and Chinese governments for the building of hospitals, schools and anti-malaria projects, envisaged for completion in the next two years.
"To this effect, the government of China is to provide the federal government of Nigeria with two grants totalling N1.9 billion, which is about 80 million Yuans (US 11.42 million dollars)," he said.
Shamshudeen said an agreement of another N8.5 billion (US 5million dollars) was signed for the supply, installation and commissioning of Global Open Trunking Architecture (GOTA ) security communications between a telecoms firm, ZTE and the government. According to him, the China National Oil Corporation (CNOOC) also indicated its interest to invest in the refineries and the petro-chemical industries, agriculture and tranining projects for Nigeria.
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