Buhari Arrives South Africa For FOCAC
Nigeria President, Muhammadu Buhari[/caption]
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday evening, arrived South Africa for the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
A statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, which said that Buhari will join other leaders, Friday morning, for the FOCAC opening, added that he is expected to meet with business leaders from China and Africa.
According to the statement, Buhari will later in the day, hold bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping of China – a follow up to his meeting with the Chinese leader which took place in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in November.
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The Chinese President had informed President Buhari of the willingness of his country to finance the whole project through a special loan agreement.
The statement read, “Of particular interest is the coastal railway project stretching for 1402 kilometers linking Lagos in the West with Calabar in the East; a project that is expected to be financed with 12 billion U.S Dollars Chinese loan and which will create about 200,000 jobs.
“Another rail project that will be up for renegotiation is the 8.3 billion Dollars Lagos-Kano standard gauge modernisation project, of which only a segment, Kaduna-Abuja has reached completion stage”.
On the Nigerian delegation are the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema; Minister of Transport, Chubuike Amaechi; and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah.
