President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday gave approval to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Budget and National Planning and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sort out the technical details of $4.5billion Chinese loan to Nigeria for the procurement of strategic machinery needed to boost agricultural development in the country.
Governor Abdulazeez Yari of Zamfara state and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Audu Ogbeh disclosed this to State House correspondents after a meeting with the President.
Yari said the loan was part of negotiations held to deal with the procurement of needed machinery for agricultural development in all states of the federation when the President visited China last year.
“They are giving us a credit line of $4.5 billion which will cover the machinery and infrastructure that is rural earth dams, irrigation, and the loan has a 20 years repayment term with five years moratorium.
“Understanding the economy of Nigeria, we negotiated to give a counterpart funding of 10 percent which we believe Nigeria can do and we are targeting the natural resources fund from the counterpart funding,” he said.
Speaking further on the loan, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said the ministry has signed an agreement with the 36 stares of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for the procurement of strategic machinery such as tractors, bulldozers, graders, irrigation pumps and trailers from China for rural development and agriculture.
“The Chinese were willing to supply us these things for a long term basis, 20 years credit at an interest rate of one percent per annum. A committee has been working on the matter and we are close to sorting out all the small details and that is why we came to see the President” he said.
He said the Chinese have shown willingness to help Nigeria because they were in the same situation 30 years ago, adding that the Chinese government have also indicated willingness to accept agricultural produce like grains, amongst others, as payment.
