Details of the Agreements President Macron Signed During His Visit to Nigeria

Muhammadu Buhari

Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari and French Emmanuel Macron witnessed the signing of several bilateral agreements to the tune of $475 million loans between the two countries.

The agreement was signed during the visit of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, to President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja on Tuesday, July 3, 2018.

Nigerian Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun signed the agreements on behalf of Nigeria; Rachel Kolbe and the Chief Executive Officer of the Agence Francaise Development (AFD), Rey Rioux, signed on behalf of France.

The agreement consisted of $200 million loan facility grant to Lagos for the execution of transport projects by AFD, another $200 million loan for land degradation project in Ogun State and $75 million for the execution of water projects in Kano State.

Here are details of the agreements:

Letter of intent for the financing of the urban mobility improvement programme initiated by the Lagos State Government

Emmanuel Macron

The $200 million letter of intent is related to a potential loan by Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) to the federal government of Nigeria. It was signed by the AFD CEO, Remy Rioux, and the Minister of Finance of Nigeria, Kemi Adeosun, in presence of Denys Gauer, the Ambassador of France in Nigeria.

The projects include:

Development of eight priority bus corridors connected to the mass transit network (urban train and high-level service bus) with a total length of 41 kilometres)

Creation of two multimodal interchange hubs and functional integration of four public transport modes (urban train, high-level bus service, water transport lines and bus lines) and planning and management capabilities of the transportation system.

These projects follow the successful urban development of the second Lagos bus rapid transit (BRT) project, that is already funded by AFD.

$75 million water coverage in Kano

The $75 million concessional loan was awarded by AFD to the federal government of Nigeria to allow Kano State to develop an effective and sustainable water supply service.

The key objectives of the project are: (I) improve access to drinking water and quality of water service in greater Kano; (ii) to improve the financial viability of Kano State Water Board by increasing its revenues and (iii) to enhance the governance framework of the water sector.

Letter of intent to participate in Nigeria’s blueprint and land degradation project in Ogun State

The $200 million agreement on Ogun State project was signed on behalf of France by Kolbe and the Managing Director of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Uche Orji, on behalf of Nigeria.

The Ogun agreement is a letter of intent to participate in the implementation of Nigeria’s blueprint and land degradation project in Ogun State.

Last weekend, Nigeria’s state oil firm, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) alsosigned a three-year oil financing deal with First E&P and Schlumberger worth $724 million.

The oil financing deal will enable Nigeria to earn $5.60 billion in taxes and royalty.