Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In late 2021, China Eximbank and the Government of Nigeria signed a $172,745,820.62 government concessional loan (GCL) agreement for the E-Border Installation for Nigeria Immigration Service Project. The borrowing terms of the loan are unknown. Nigeria’s House of Representatives authorized the borrowing in July 2021. The borrower was expected to use the proceeds of the loan to finance 100% of the cost of a $172,745,820.62 commercial (EPC) contract between Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior and a consortium consisting of Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited (also known as Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Ltd) and China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC), which was signed on May 4, 2018. The purpose of the project is to acquire and install several different electronic monitoring and communication technologies at the country’s 86 border control posts, which consist of 6 mega-control posts, 16 medium-control posts, and 64 mini-control posts. The technologies supported by the project include high-definition video surveillance for pedestrians; observable thermal and optical bi-spectrum for low visibility environments; unified internet protocol telephony and videoconferencing facilities; and advanced eLTE multi-media walkie-talkie communications. To address the problem of power supply, especially at remote locations, the project also envisages implementing a solar grid and 0.6 hybrid-power solutions at all border control posts. Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited and CMEC are the EPC contractors responsible for implementation. Their work will be overseen by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), an agency under the supervision of Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior. NIS, in turn, will collaborate with the country’s Air Force and army units deployed near the borders. They are expected to use the new technologies to monitor 1,400 illegal routes used for smuggling and cross-border criminal activities.”
Staff comments
1. This project is also known as the e-Border and e-Prison Solutions Procurement and Installation Project, the E-Border Solution Project, and the E-Borders Security Project. 2. In its Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) Database, Boston University’s Global Development Policy (GDP) Center records the loan commitment year for the E-Border Installation for Nigeria Immigration Service Project as 2017. AidData records the loan commitment year as 2021 for two reasons: (1) Nigeria’s House of Representatives did not authorize borrowing until July 2021. (2) The Government of Nigeria itself records the loan commitment year as 2021 in its voluntary reporting to the World Bank through the Debtor Reporting System (DRS). 3. As of December 2023, the China Eximbank loan for the E-Border Installation for Nigeria Immigration Service Project was not included in the China's Overseas Development Finance Database (CODF), which is managed by Boston University’s Global Development Policy (GDP) Center. 4. Given that this loan was issued as a GCL, it was very likely denominated in RMB rather than USD. This issue warrants further investigation.