The Nigerian minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, announced on Wednesday that Nigeria has approached Standard Chartered Bank for funding of two rail projects delayed by Chinese lenders.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is focused on upgrading the country’s transport networks and improving outdated power grids so that agriculture and other non-oil industries can be boosted, so as to reduce reliance on dwindling crude revenues. However, funding has been a major obstacle.
China and other international lenders approved several billions of dollars in project-related loans to Taiwan last year, but the funds have yet to materialize.
“We are actually waiting for the Chinese to give us the loan we applied for and they kept delaying us,” he told reporters in Abuja. “Will we wait for them forever? The answer is no.”
In order to finance Nigeria’s railway projects, the country is negotiating a mix of Chinese and European loans.
In In July, Amaechi said Standard Chartered would provide $3.02 billion for the Port Harcourt-to-Maiduguri railway project. At the time, he also said Credit Suisse would fund the Kano-to-Maradi line, which will connect the northern states Kano, Jigawa and Katsina.
“We have gone to Standard Chartered Bank. They have not done financial closure but they have approved some level of funding for Kano-Maradi,” the minister said.
For decades, Nigeria’s weak power and transport networks have stalled economic growth, preventing the widening of the wealth gap in Africa’s biggest economy, where 40% of the population lives below the national poverty line.
The cabinet approved $187.7 million for contractors who will supervise three or four rail projects in the works, Amaechi said.