The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on Wednesday, disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari administration has repaid $150m out of the $2bn Chinese loans borrowed for rail construction.
The former Governor of Rivers State started this when he spoke on Channels TV.
President Buhari’s government has been condemned for borrowing billions of dollars from the Chinese government.
Amaechi while speaking on Wednesday said the Federal Government has only borrowed for the Kaduna-Abuja and the Lagos-Ibadan railways.
When asked how much of the Chinese loans obtained that the Federal Government has repaid, Amaechi said, “The right ministry to respond to that question is the Ministry of Finance; they borrow and they repay but I think the last I heard about it, it was between a $100m to $150m repayments that we have done so far in the Kaduna-Abuja.
“Don’t forget that we’ve not borrowed any money yet, the only money we borrowed is in the Kaduna-Abuja and Lagos-Ibadan. Lagos-Ibadan, what we borrowed is about $1.5bn though it has not matured for repayment, what has matured for repayment is the Kaduna-Abuja which is being repaid.
“Nigerians think we borrow so much but the only projects we have borrowed so far is the Kaduna-Abuja where we borrowed $500m and the Lagos-Ibadan where we borrowed $1.5bn. So, that brings the total loan exposure for us in the Ministry of Transport to about $2bn as far as the railway is concerned.”
He further stated that the Chinese are still in charge of the rail services on the Abuja-Kaduna and Lagos-Ibadan lines.
According to him, the Chinese drive the trains and will then hand them over to Nigerians once major areas of operations are ticked
This article was originally published on Nigeria News