by Stanley Azuakola

A Federal Government delegation comprising Nigeria’s minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed, and minister of State for Works, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda were in China, where they obtained a loan of $1.1 billion (about N176 billion) from the Chinese Exim Bank, to finance three projects.

The projects are the Abuja light rail project ($500 million); the galaxy backbone infrastructure project ($100 million), and four airport terminals ($500 million.)

The facilities attract concessional terms of 2.5 per cent interest over 20 years with a grace period of seven years.

However, the senior special assistant to the finance minister, Paul Nwabiukwu, said in a statement that while the necessary protocols for the release of the funds for the first two projects were completed yesterday, that of the $500 million airport terminals is to be signed soon.

He disclosed that the credit facility would help realise President Goodluck Jonathan’s pledge to boost critical infrastructure in the country. He also revealed that the projects would be completed by 2015.

Nwabiukwu assured Nigerians of the commitment of the Chinese bank to the financing of the third project, that is the construction of four state-of-the-art airport terminals in four cities across the country. He said the agreement would be signed within the next few weeks.

The four terminals would be located in the cities of Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Enugu.

The loan agreement was signed on behalf of Nigeria by Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, while Mr. Sun Ping, the managing director of China Exim Bank signed for the bank.

Apart from the ministers, others present at the signing were the director general, Debt Management Office, Abraham Nwankwo and special adviser to the president on Performance Monitoring, Prof.  Sylvester Monye.

Explaining government’s decision to prioritise those three projects, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala had this to say:

“President Goodluck Jonathan is keeping his promise to Nigerians through these important projects. The light rail in Abuja will improve transportation for all residents, especially the working class. The backbone will help to improve service delivery in areas like education and health while empowering the youths with better connectivity to the rest of the world. And the four new airport terminals will, like the others, create jobs and also ensure that Nigerian air passengers enjoy the services and convenience that their counterparts in other parts of the world take for granted.”