Nigeria plans to borrow more than $17 billion from China, via China Eximbank. This operation
is part of a vast infrastructural program validated this week by the Nigerian Senate.
A total of $22.7 billion is planned to be borrowed from seven external partners to finance the project.
Apart from China, which will provide more than 74% of the financing, the other lenders will be the World Bank (2.8
$ billion), AfDB ($1.8 billion), Islamic Development Bank ($110 million), Japan
international cooperation ($200 million). The last two loans will be granted by the Bank
German Development Agency ($200 million) and the French Development Agency ($480 million).
According to the Nigerian authorities, this new loan aims to finance road, rail and
infrastructure. hydropower as well as special intervention projects in the country. In March 2019, the government
had already announced plans to invest more than $20 billion in infrastructure over the course of five to ten
next years to meet the country's needs in this area. A strategy, which is part of the
President Muhammadu Buhari<'s plan (pictured) to make the infrastructure sector one of the levers of the > Nigeria's transition from an oil-dependent to a diversified economy.
For some international financial institutions such as the IMF, this strategy could impose <> significant risks to Nigerian debt management. This is all the more so since the strong dependence of the countries
African loans to Chinese loans has often drawn sharp criticism from foreign countries; a vision of
things not always shared by Abuja.
"The loans will have a positive influence on the country's GDP," said Nigerian Senate Speaker Ahmed
Lawan, quoted by Bloomberg.