Presidency lists what Buhari achieved from China trip

President Muhammadu Buhari

The presidency on Saturday listed the gains from President Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to China.

Buhari and other Heads of State, Governments and delegations from 52 African countries, attended the Forum on China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

His spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a statement, noted that there was the signing of USD 328 million financing agreement for the National Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone by the Nigerian Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and Wang Xiaotoa, Director-General, China International Development Cooperation Agency.

He wrote: “As for more specific takeaways from the bilateral meetings, Nigeria received blessings of the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping for the building of the country’s largest hydroelectric power plant in Mambila. Work on the power project will commence on the site in early 2019.

“The Nigerian delegation was able to sign thirteen agreements during the summit out of 25, with more to be signed by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Federation.

“In all, more than USD 10 billion agreements were signed. Others, still under discussion will be quantified upon the conclusion of discussions by various parties. Among those that have been signed, in agreements or MOUs include that entered between the China National Petroleum Corporation, which has agreed to secure funding for the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Ajaokuta – Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline to cost USD 2.8 billion.

“The agreement entered by the Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment with Shandong Ruyi International Fashion Industry for USD 2 billion, for a first-ever cotton value chain; that is from cotton growing to ginning, spinning, textile manufacture and garment with Katsina, Kano, Abia and Lagos States as the chosen locations.

“Another Chinese conglomerate, Capegate Integrated is into an MOU worth USD 1.5 billion for energy and organic fertilizer that will cover Abuja, Niger, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Kano to generate: 300 MW of electricity; 500,000 tonnes of organic fertilizer; 60,000,000 litres of oil from pyrolysis; Create up to 10,000 Jobs; 400 garbage collection trucks, various types of city sanitation equipment and One million (1,000,000) waste bins to be deployed.

“The NNPC entered another agreement with Nanni Good Fortune Heavy Industries Group and Capegate Group for a USD 400 million investments across six states to allow for: 90 litres of ethanol; 64 MW of power; 72,000 tonnes of sugar per annum; 10,000 tonnes of animal farm per annum and 5,500 direct employment.

“The Nanni Industries and Capegate Group submitted an MOU to the NIPC for an investment in 15,000 hectares of Cassava Ethanol in the South-west, and another project of the same value and scale in the South-east.

“Among other agreements that the NNPC signed was one with Obax-Complant Consortium and another with Capegate-Nanning Consortium that targets 10 biofuel complexes nationwide. NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru said through these ventures, Nigeria is giving effect to her aspiration for the exploitation of renewable fuel sources.

“Edo State Government, as reported widely, had signed for the construction of the Benin River Port; the Benin Industrial Park and a 550 Barrels per day modular refinery. A funding MOU between Huawei technologies and the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by Galaxy Backbone for the training of 1,000 Nigerian government officials to acquire basic ICT knowledge and skills has been forwarded to the Ministry of Justice.

“Huawei also plans the annual training of 10,000 Nigerians in ICT, with a wider and deeper training of 5,000 out of this number who, upon certification by Huawei will be employable anywhere in the world. Another attractive MOU signed was that by KhromeMonkey Nigeria Limited, behind whom is Leadership newspapers owner, Sam Nda-Isaiah and Shenzen Right Net Technology Limited.

“This partnership will lead to setting up of Amanbo Nigeria, a business-to-business-consumer (B2B2C) platform and portal that would enable Nigerian exporters to trade with Chinese importers and vice-versa.

“This partnership holds tremendous opportunities for Nigeria in terms of creating thousands of jobs, if not millions as core and support services to the platforms such as warehousing all over the country, logistics, distributorships, customer services, shipping services, credit facilities for small businesses etc.

“The estimated trade potential of the platform within the first three years given the current trade relationship with China is USD 500 million. This is expected to continue to grow, creating millions of jobs for Nigerians.”

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