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China continues Nigerian rail expansion with $5bn modernisation deal

Nigeria’s federal government has signed two contracts valued at nearly $5.1bn with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to build or modernise two rail lines.

The two agreements are the Kano-Kaduna Segment 3 of the Lagos-Kano rail modernisation project, a contract worth $1.68bn, and the Calabar-Port Harcourt Segment 1, which extends to Onne Deep Seaport of the coastal rail project, a project valued at $3.4bn.

Transport minister Rotimi Amaechi said the China-Exim Bank was cooperating on the projects, which would be completed in November 2018, reports the newspaper, Punch.

Chinese firms are now heavily involved with Nigeria’s rail revitalisation. CCECC’s contract win, reported 2 September, follows a $1.85bn contract awarded to China Railway Construction Corporation to build a light railway in Kano city.

Image: A view of Kano city in 2005 (Shiraz Chakera/Wikimedia Commons)

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