FG Close To Securing $4bn Investment Loan From China, Says Minister
Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources[/caption]
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Kachikwu has said that the country is closing in on a $4 billion investment in the oil sector from China.
According to Kachikwu, the loan facility is part of the $75.6 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Federal Government and China signed in July during the country’s visit to the Asian nation.
He disclosed that as part of the agreement a 40-man Chinese investment team is expected to arrive the country at the end of this month.
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The Petroleum minister told State House correspondents his ministry has already briefed the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on the development, adding that the MOU has a gestation period of about one year.
“It is still work in progress. We are having a team of over 40 Chinese, members of some of those bodies, about visiting Nigeria by the end of this month. We are also setting up a full inter-ministerial panel that will be deliberating with them for each of those sectoral investments,” Kachikwu said.
He said that the Federal Government, during the roadshow, also received investment pledges from different Chinese private investors worth $70 billion. This amount, according to him, is different from those made when President Muhammadu Buhari visited China.
“That was an all-African type front basis; this is completely separate. I will say that the target we had while going to China was to raise $40 billion, which is the total cost of our infrastructural gap for the oil industry.
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“We raised about $75.6 billion, $69 billion of which was NNPC and government-related potential investments and loans, and the rest directly related to the private sector. If we get even 20 per cent of that, it will be a major achievement for us.
“I will say we have oneyear period to work on this. We expect that some will come earlier, there are some facility lines that are almost readily available close to about $3 or $4 billion, but the investment packages will take us time. Realise that this is different from the pledges that were made when the president visited China which was an all-African type front basis, this is completely separate,” the minister added.
Recall that in July this year, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) embarked on a roadshow to China seeking investments to bridge the infrastructure funding gaps in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, with the government afterwards announcing the signing of MOUs with some Chinese companies worth over $50 billion for infrastructure development.
