Buhari hails China’s efforts to improve Nigeria’s infrastructure

President Muhammadu Buhari has hailed the People’s Republic of China for its “genuine” efforts aimed at improving Nigeria’s infrastructure development.

Buhari spoke yesterday at State House, Abuja, while receiving the Chairman of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC), Mr. Fenjian Chen.

The President said Nigeria’s infrastructure had depreciated and deteriorated over the years and was affecting standard of living, and also leading to loss of lives through avoidable accidents.

“We are very grateful to China for the effort to rebuild our infrastructure and for bringing technical expertise to the country. We will give the required support and cooperation so that our old, out of date and collapsed infrastructure might be turned around,” he said.

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The President, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, promised to personally pay attention to the many projects being undertaken in the country for the good of Nigerians.

Chen, who led the high-powered Chinese team to meet with the President, said CRCC is an international company, operating currently in 124 countries of the world, with 18,000 local employees in Nigeria alone.

Part of projects CRCC is undertaking include railway, dry port, free trade zone and building of highways. About 40,000 more jobs are to be created from these.

“The sum of $250 million dollars will be invested on a dry port in Ibadan, Oyo State, and it will decongest the ports in Lagos, and speed up clearance of goods by the Customs Service,” Chen said.

He commended President Buhari for the war against corruption and insecurity, expressing confidence that Nigeria would soon become a much better country.