Nigeria awards $7bn Lagos-Kano rail project to Chinese state firm

Nigeria has awarded a $6.68 billion contract to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) for work on a major segment of a railway linking the country’s commercial hub Lagos, in the southwest, and Kano in the north, according to a report seen by business a.m.

“The signing of the segment contract agreement today (Tuesday) concludes all outstanding segments of the Lagos-Kano rail line,” the Chinese state news agency quoted Nigeria’s transport ministry as saying. The work is expected to take two or three years.

CCECC, a subsidiary of Chinese state rail builder China Railway Construction Corporation, has been involved in other parts of the Lagos-Kano rail project, which started in 2006 and was broken into segments for implementation.

In 2016, Nigeria awarded it work on a segment between the northern states of Kano and Kaduna with a contract sum of $1.685 billion.

The railway line is also receiving funding from China.

In April, China Exim bank approved a $1.231 billion loan for the network’s modernisation programme.

In February this year, the Federal Executive Council, FEC,  approved a memo presented by Rotimi Amaechi, the country’s minister of transportation for the construction of a rail line from Ibadan, Oyo State, to Kaduna, which he said “will cost $6.7 billion, with a completion period of three years.”