China Eximbank provides $460.8 million preferential buyer's credit for Abuja-Keffi Road Expansion and Dualization of Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia Makurdi Road Project

On August 18, 2017, China Eximbank and the Government of Nigeria signed a $460,822,440.20 preferential buyer’s credit (PBC) agreement for the Abuja-Keffi Road Expansion and Dualization of Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia Makurdi Road Project. The PBC (loan) carried the following terms: a 20 year maturity, a 7 year grace period, and a 2.5% interest rate. The final maturity date of this loan is September 21, 2037. As of December 31, 2020, Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO) reported that the China Eximbank loan had achieved a 24.42% disbursement rate ($112.53 million) and the borrower had made interest repayments worth $24.42 million and no principal repayments to the lender. As such, the loan’s (principal) amount outstanding, as of December 31, 2020, was $112.53 million. This project involves the expansion of the Abuja-Keffi Road and the dualization of Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia Makurdi Road. The project consists of two parts: the 5.4 km expansion of Abuja-Keffi expressway, linking Abuja to Nasarawa, and the reconstruction and dualization of the 221.8 km Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi expressway, linking Nasarawa to Benue. The expansion of the Abuja-Keffi expressway is expected to last three years, during which a two-lane auxiliary road will be built on the existing six-lane section. The Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi expressway will be widened from the current two-lane road into a two-way, four-lane section. China Harbour Construction Company is the contractor responsible for implementation. A formal groundbreaking ceremony took place on November 22, 2018. However, construction did not begin until February 8, 2019.

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the 227 km Abuja-Keffi-Makurdi Road Rehabilitation and Upgrade Project. The Chinese project title is 凯菲至马库尔迪公路改扩建工程项目. 2. In the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020, it does not record the grace period for this loan. AidData records the grace period (7 years) that is reported by Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO) in its ‘Loans Obtained from China Exim As At December 31, 2020’ publication.

Number of official sources

11

Number of total sources

25