The Ambassador of People’s Republic of China to Nigeria, His Excellency, Cui Jianchun, has said Nigeria needs critical infrastructure to achieve a giant leap.
China is currently playing the role of a catalyst in the building of infrastructure.
The country, through China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has embarked in construction of four international terminals at the nation’s major airports and the provision of infrastructural projects.
On the impact of the new international terminal at the Lagos airport, which was unveiled on Tuesday, he said, “We have done some evaluations and assessments about this project. It is very important for Nigeria because Lagos is a metropolitan city.
“So we have built this to international standards. With this state-of-the-art terminal, I believe we can attract more passengers to Nigeria.’’
After COVID-19, countries are opening and people would like to come to Nigeria and travel out of Nigeria and they will do that through this gateway. Through this terminal, we can access the international community and people will benefit from this. This is a flagship project for China and Nigeria.”
The Ambassador explained that Nigeria is currently planning a huge railway project and it is working with China to realise it but that it needs funding and sourcing the funds is a big challenge.
“If we have a railway, it would be easy for people to travel and we are working on the pipeline. The challenge however is how we can get the money.
“How can we get reliable and reasonable terms of the finance? This is the challenge for us. But we are working hard and we are talking with the banks to do this for us. The banks are using their professional language.
They are calculating the risks and how they can get the money back because we are in a difficult situation now. We are looking at how we can lift people out of poverty,” Jianchun said.
The Ambassador added: “During my speech at the commissioning of the terminal, I told the President that whatever the project, plan, policy, partners, the most important thing is the political support. So this is very important.
“The two countries from the top levels, from business levels, from people to people, from party to party, we need to work hard to build this trust. This will benefit the economy, security and international relationships.”
