China Eximbank pledges $1 billion loan for 360MW Gurara II Hydropower Project

On May 15, 2019, the Nigerian Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a $1 billion loan with China Eximbank for the 360MW Gurara II Hydropower Project in Kaduna State in the north of the country. The project, sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Power, is located 140 kilometers downstream of the existing smaller Gurara 1 hydro facility, placing the scheme around 40 kilometers from Abuja in Kaduna State. Then, in July 2021, Nigeria’s Senate approved an external borrowing plan (titled ‘2018-2020 External Borrowing Rolling Plan’), which included a China Eximbank loan for the 360MW Gurara II Hydropower Project. In December 2021, the Nigerian House of Representatives approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for a $786.38 million China Eximbank loan for the 360MW Gurara II Hydropower Project. However, as of June 2022, there was still no evidence of a loan agreement with China Eximbank ever being finalized.

Additional details

1. In its China’s Global Energy Finance Dataset, Boston University's Global Development Policy Center identifies a $1 billion China Eximbank loan commitment for the 360MW Gurara II Hydropower Project. However, AidData has not identified any evidence of a loan agreement with China Eximbank being finalized, so it has status-coded the project as a pledge rather than a commitment. 2. WRI's China Overseas Finance Inventory (COFI) identifies a $107,142,8571 China Eximbank loan commitment in 2021 for the 30MW Gurara Dam Project and a $892,857,143 China Eximbank loan commitment in 2021 for the 250MW Gurara Falls Project. See https://datasets.wri.org/dataset/cofi

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