China earmarks $5billion for investment in Africa

(L-R) Hu Zhirong, Vice President of China-Africa Development Fund and Bolanle Onagoruwa (Ms), Director-General of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

China earmarks $5billion for investment in Africa
Hauwa Noroh Ali, Abuja

The Chinese Government says it has set aside the sum of five billion dollars for Investments in Africa.

Speaking when he led a six-man delegation on a courtesy visit to the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa in her office in Abuja, The Vice President of the China-Africa Development Fund, Hu Zhirong, stressed that the private equity  fund would be administered by the China-Africa Development Fund.

Investment modalities

According to him, the Chinese Government had in Beijing set aside the funds to boost investments in developing economies particularly in the area of infrastructural development, which he noted that Nigeria had not benefitted from.

However, he said, given the vast economic potentials in Nigeria, a delegation from the Fund was in the country to explore areas of interest where the funds could be invested.

Zhirong explained that the funds were not for financing purposes but purely for investments in which the Chinese government through its business community could take up shares in enterprises of interest in Nigeria.

Since arrival in Nigeria, he said, the delegation had held consultations with some Nigerian businessmen during which it discovered that   there were investment opportunities in the power, road and transport sectors.

“We have held wide consultations since arrival in Nigeria and during our discussions we discovered that there are immediate investment opportunities in power and road, particularly the Benin- Ore Road”, he said. 

On power, Zhirong noted that Nigeria and China could collaborate to boost power in the country given the latter’s expertise, evident in the generation of four trillion kilowatts for its teeming population, whereas “Nigeria’s population which is one-tenth of that of China is yet to achieve reasonable megawatts”.

Earlier, the BPE boss, Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa informed the visiting delegation that the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Bureau was in the process of privatizing the power sector which the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan was driving vigorously.

She noted that the exercise was capital intensive and required foreign investment.

Williams