Following the conclusions of the two-day Belt and Road initiative in Beijing earlier this week, Nigeria came back with the assurance that China will complete the Abuja – Kano and PortHarcourt – Maiduguri railway projects. This follows the statement by the government after the BRI forum and the meeting of the Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vice President Kashim Shettima on the sidelines of the meeting. The projects had stalled following cutbacks by the Chinese and the non-release of the 85% of its contributions towards the project. As part of the BRI in Nigeria, the Chinese have built the Abuja – Kaduna railway project, the Lekki Port, the Lagos light railway project, and the Lagos – Ibadan railway project. However, these projects suffer from poor integration into national infrastructure plans and weak fiscal arrangements, especially towards the projects paying for themselves.
