The Need for Critical Infrastructure to Develop Nigeria’s Economy

Air Watch 

Chinedu Eze

With the role played by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) in the realisation of four international terminals at the nation’s major airports and the provision of infrastructural projects in Nigeria by Chinese companies in collaboration with the federal government, 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.

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.” 

Jianchun told THISDAY that he understood Nigeria and what it needs; stressing that Nigeria needs a comprehensive, sustainable and systematic approach to development, adding that railway, highway, airports are key to movement of people from place to place both locally and internationally. 

“People cannot afford to buy tickets if there is no migration. How can we be productive by ourselves? There are five goals for two countries (China and Nigeria) to work together. Political consonance, economic cooperation and international correlation, security and military collaborations and people to people communications. We are currently engaged in infrastructure development. The second is Information and Communications Technology (ICT). We need the digital economy, we need the 5G technology and also we need a value added industry,” Jianchun said.

“That means we can produce more commodities not only consumed by Nigerians but we can export to China. We need a value added industry to create jobs and to give people an income. We need to know how we can attract more foreign investment to Nigeria. We need to invest in agriculture, oil and gas industries amongst others. Foreign investments only rely on our domestic resources. So, we have to think of not only infrastructure but we have to think in a holistic way, which also involves the five goals. These include security, structures, speed, synergy and supervision. Nigeria has huge human and natural resources, which is not what every country can possess. So we need the technology to aid production,” the Ambassador said.

In the area of power, the Ambassador said that it was really very disappointing that Nigeria does not have steady power supply but stated that with political will and commitment, such challenges could be overcome.

“I got up by 5: 00 am this morning and we tried to get a small airplane from Abuja to Lagos. We also booked a helicopter from the airport to Lekki. I could not fly there because there was no electricity. Power is the biggest challenge for Nigeria. This is very important for Nigeria. So, I am working hard to see what we can do. I am talking with the Ministry about nuclear power. Nuclear power is not just about power. It is also about young people and technology. So, we have solar energy and oil and gas. We are working hard to bring some of these China investments here but we need a policy to support this because it is a long-term investment. If we have this policy like we had in China, it will give us the time. But now, if we can only rely on domestic resources, we cannot make rapid progress. I have four generators in the embassy,” he said.

He also acknowledged that Chinese companies were making a foray into hospitality industry, noting that Nigeria has everything that is required to grow and become one of the best in the world.

“Nigeria is a beautiful country, with a nice landscape. People deserve to travel to a lot of places in Nigeria. We want to travel freely. Every year, we have 103 million people travelling out of China. I have talked to the Ministry of Information and Culture to see if we can get only one per cent of that number to visit Nigeria. That would mean 1.3 million people from China could visit Nigeria yearly. This is possible.  In the coming years, if security changes, tourism will boost in Nigeria. The Chinese love to visit Africa. We need investments to build tourism in Nigeria,” the Ambassador said.