Nigeria has been offered a $6bn credit facility by China to fund infrastructure projects in the country.
This development was on Tuesday, made known by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama.
While speaking with reporters who travelled with President Muhammadu Buhari to China, the Minister said: “It is a credit that is on the table as soon as we identify the projects.”
“It won’t need an agreement to be signed; it is just to identify the projects and we will access it.”
Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, had also offered $15m agricultural assistance to Nigeria for the establishment of 50 demonstration farms across the country.
The offer came after President Buhari had vowed to make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production.
Shehu said the Chinese President made the offer during talks between Buhari’s delegation and high-ranking Chinese government officials led by Jinping.
He also revealed that China and Nigeria agreed to strengthen military and civil service exchanges as part of a larger capacity building engagement.
Also, China offered to increase its scholarship awards to Nigerian students from about 100 to 700 annually, while 1,000 other Nigerians would be given vocational and technical training by China annually.