Rotimi Amaechi, minister of
transportation, says one of the benefits of Chinese investments in Nigeria, is
the University of Transportation currently being built by the Chinese in Daura,
Katsina state.
Speaking at one of the breakout
sessions of the just concluded Nigerian Economic Summit (NES24), the minister
said the Chinese are building a factory in the University structure.
“Somebody asked, what are the
benefits of the Chinese investments, I say quite a lot; there is a University
of Transportation in Daura, that they are constructing,” Amaechi said.
“We insisted with them that they
must build factory that would produce locomotives, coaches, wagons with their
own money.
“I said if you want me to sign
these contracts, you must tell me what is my personal benefit, and my personal
benefits is that you must manufacture 50 percent here — I will allow you 50
percent outside, but the rest must be produced here in Nigeria.”
‘HOW MANY NIGERIAN ENTREPRENEURS
CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT GOVT?’
The minister said many Nigerians
keep clamouring for the private sector to build infrastructure in the country
but expressed lack of faith in the capacity of the entrepreneurs to fix the
deficit.
“All this noise you people are
making about funding, I say, $2.5 billion is almost N1 trillion. Lagos-Kano
(rail) is $8.7 billion, that is how many trillion naira?” Amaechi asked
“How many banks can fund it? We
are ready to take tomorrow. $8.7 billion is nearly N3 trillion. Lagos-Calabar
is $11 billion.
“So when people talk about
borrowing… (a newspaper) took me to the cleaners, ‘oh, why am I allowing the
government to do this? Bring private investors’, I say if they know how much it
takes to construct 10 kilometres of railway, (the newspaper) will close down.
“That is why government is
borrowing for those critical infrastructures, if I say it, they would say
‘didn’t you know before you came to power?”
“There is one thing he (Babatunde
Fashola) said that I never say in public; where are the entrepreneurs in
Nigeria? You say you’re an entrepreneur, if we remove government, will you
survive? How many? If anybody is willing to invest, we are ready,” Amaechi
added.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com