Abuja taps StanChart for rail project financing, instead of China Eximbank
Standard Chartered
938.60p
16:55 14/11/24
Abuja may tap StanChart instead of Chinese lenders for the financing needed to modernise two of the country's main railways.
Banks
4,619.92
16:38 14/11/24
FTSE 100
8,071.19
16:49 14/11/24
FTSE 350
4,459.02
16:38 14/11/24
FTSE All-Share
4,417.25
16:54 14/11/24
Speaking to Bloomberg, Nigerian transport minister, Rotimi Amaechi, said talks were under way on the $14.4bn of loans needed to upgrade the narrow-gauge Port Harcourt-Maiduguri track in eastern Nigeria and the standard-gauge coastal line.
Contracts for the construction work in both projects however have already been inked with the local unit of state-owned China Civil Engineering Construction.
The value of the contract for CCECC to renovate the Eastern Line was pegged at $3.2bn and that for the Coastal Line at $11.2bn.
The latter contract was signed in 2014 and in 2017 Nigerian officials had reportedly said that Export-Import Bank of China would soon approve a $3.5bn to begin work.
China Eximbank had already financed $2.3bn-worth of rail projects in the West African country and a further $5.3bn of funds were anticipated to allow CCECC to extend the Lagos-Ibadan line to Kano.