By Black Star News
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
Nigeria has announced that their $60 billion 4,000km high-speed rail network project will be backed by the Chinese Asian Development Investment Bank.
The construction will be spearheaded by Abuja-based logistics firm De-Sadel Nigeria. China Liancai Petroleum Investment Holdings is also involved in funding the project.
The high-speed rail network project will connect Lagos to Port Harcourt. The first part of the project will include four major cities in Nigeria: Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt.
Nigeria’s secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, said, “This is a country that is business friendly especially under the administration of President Bola Tinubu. Though we need reasonable extent of foreign investments but such partnerships would have to be reliable and credible and beneficial to all partners. About the proof of funds, this will be critically scrutinised in line with international practice so that we can be sure of the viability of the bullet train project and the timelines. The high speed trains project is a welcome development. We will look at the proof of funds that has been submitted critically and get back to them. We are going to do business with them.”
In a statement, De-Sadel CEO, Samuel Uko, said, “Today is a very great day in the life of this administration. The high-speed rail bullet train project that we have started 10 years ago has gotten a nod from administration. It is this administration that has given us almost 90 per cent of approvals.
“Today, with our partners, I have just presented the official proof of fund for the project. The fund is coming from the Asian Development Investment Bank ad it is to cover the first phase of the project that cuts across four major cities of Nigeria.
“The rail line is from Lagos to Abuja, to Kano, and from Abuja to Port Harcourt. So this is a very great work that the government have done. The federal government of Nigeria, through the ICRC, approved the outline business case. And the next step now was for us to submit the proof of fund to the government, which we just did. So I believe in the shortest possible time, Nigeria will start enjoying a high-speed rail in Nigeria.”
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