President Muhammadu Buhari will be in South Africa , Thursday to take part in the Forum on China/Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) occurring in Johannesburg, December 4-5, 2015. At this forum President Buhari will follow up his meeting with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping which took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in November in New York.
President Buhari had shown to Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader at the bilateral meeting in New York that he needed China to re-initiate slowed down rail ventures under new terms that would see China giving almost all the financing required.
Exceptionally compelling is the coastal railroad task extending for 1402 kilometers connecting Lagos in the West with Calabar in the East; a venture that is relied upon to be financed with 12 billion U.S Dollars Chinese loan and which will create around 200,000 jobs.
Another rail project that will be up for renegotiation is the $8.3bn Lagos-Kano standard gage modernization undertaking, of which is only a segment, Kaduna-Abuja has come to completion stage.
President Buhari is additionally expected to examine methods for uprooting all deterrents in the way for the 3,050 MW Mambila Power Station, considered a key undertaking which was conceived in 1982 yet has not taken off.
The Chinese President had informed President Buhari of the eagerness of his nation to back the entire project through an extraordinary loan agreement.
The President, who will be joined by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema; Minister of Transportation, Chubuike Amaechi; and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, will return to Abuja on Saturday, December 5.