--Advertisement--

IN DETAIL: The 11 projects funded by China’s $3.1bn loan to Nigeria

Documents seen by TheCable have shown that Nigeria is indebted to China to the tune of $3.121 billion dollars as of March 31, 2020.

According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), this represents 3.94 percent of Nigeria’s total public debt, which stood at $79.303 billion as of March 31 (N28.6 trillion).

Nigeria’s total debt to China also accounts for 11.28% of the total external debt stock of $27.67 billion.

Advertisement

“The total borrowing from China of $3.121 billion as at March 31, 2020, are concessional loans with interest rates of 2.50 percent per annum, tenor of 20 years and moratorium of seven years,” the debt office said.

According to the debt office, the low-interest rate reduces the cost of borrowing for the government and the long repayment period means that the principal sum can be repaid over many years.

“These two benefits, make the provisions for debt service in the annual budget lower than they would otherwise have been if the loans were on commercial terms,” it said.

Advertisement

In response to whether China can take possession of the projects if there is a loan servicing default, the DMO said: “Nigeria explicitly provides for debt service on its external and domestic debt in its annual budgets. In effect, this means that debt service is recognised and payment is planned for. In addition, a number of the projects being (and to be) financed by the loans are either revenue generating or have the potential to generate revenue”.

Here is a breakdown of all the projects and the loan amounts (in million USD):

Advertisement
S/N Project Description Amount Agreement date Maturity Amount disbursed Repayment (principal) Repayment (interest)
1 Nigerian National Public Security Communications system project 399.50 December 20, 2010 September 21, 2030 399.50 76.83 84.92
2 Nigerian Railway Modernisation project (Idu-Kaduna section) 500.00 December 20, 2010 September 21, 2030 500.00 96.15 74.52
3 Abuja Light Rail project 500.00 November 7, 2012 September 21, 2032 500.00 19.23 60.63
4 Nigerian ICT Infrastructure Backbone project 100.00 January 5, 2013 September 21, 2032 100.00 0.00 9.38
5 Nigerian four airport terminal expansion project (Abuja, Kano, Lagos & Port Harcourt) 500.00 July 10, 2013 September 21, 2034 455.28 0.00 40.58
6 Nigerian Zungeru Hydroelectric Power project 984.32 September 28, 2013 September 21, 2033 518.24 0.00 19.28
7 Nigerian 40 Parboiled Rice Processing Plants project (federal ministry of agriculture and rural development) 325.67 April 26, 2016 March 21, 2036 0.00 0.00 0.00
8 Nigerian Railway Modernisation project (Lagos-Ibadan section) 1,267.32 August 18, 2017 September 21, 2037 759.84 0.00 19.11
9 Nigeria Rehabilitation and upgrading of Abuja-Keffi-Markurdi road project 460.82  August 18, 2017 September 21, 2037 80.64 0.00 1.84
10 Nigeria supply of rolling stocks and depot equipment for Abuja Light Rail project 157.00 May 29, 2018 March 21, 2038 0.00 0.00 0.00
11 Nigeria Greater Abuja Water Supply project 381.09 May 29, 2018 March 21, 2038 0.00 0.00 0.00
T0tal

2 comments
  1. Nigerians are deceived by u.s propaganda and useless Nigerian politicians that china loan was death trap, thanks to this federal govt for doing digital economy services and date public presentations

  2. Thanks for the brilliant piece and my concern is that is not comprehensive enough to detail the extent of work done on those project as to enable the citizens confirmed if money’s hasn’t been taken by sneak or lion, possible by the winds as this experience are a strong occurrence in this country.
    I appreciate if we’ll know the extent of work done is included as is the case with second Niger bridge.

    Thanks best
    Regards

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

error: Content is protected from copying.