All Posts in "Day: November 22, 2020"

In efforts to deepen China-Africa trade relations within the continent, Chinese Embassy in Nigeria says China has built more than 6,000 kilometers of railways and roads, developed 20 ports and more than 80 large power facilities.

Zhao Yong, Chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of China in Nigeria in a statement commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) said the China-Africa relationship has been stregthened over the years.

Tong said the forum has established itself as a pacesetter for cooperation with Africa, a champion of multilateralism, and a fine example of mutually beneficial cooperation.

He said “The past twenty years have been a journey of productive cooperation between China and Africa. China-Africa trade reached $208.7 billion last year, and China’s direct investment stock in Africa stood at US $49.1 billion, 20 times and 100 times more than 20 years ago respectively”.

“China has built more than 6,000 kilometers of railways and roads respectively in Africa, developed nearly 20 ports and more than 80 large power facilities in Africa, which has brought significant changes to Africa’s economic and social development.”

According to Yong, China has provided about 120,000 government scholarships to African countries, established 61 Confucius Institutes and 44 Confucius classrooms in 46 African countries, and sent a total of 21,000 medical workers to 48 African countries, offering treatment to about 220 million patients.

He explained that China-Africa cooperation has not only contributed to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, but also contributed to the strength of Africa through unity.

“This fully demonstrates that developing countries, through independent exploration, are fully capable of finding a path of rejuvenation suited to their own national conditions,” he said.

“The China-Africa relationship will never stop moving forward. The development of FOCAC will never take a break.

He said the Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently put forward four propositions on how to enable FOCAC to continue leading China-Africa relations to achieve progress in creative ways at the reception commemorating the 20th anniversary of FOCAC.

He quotes Wang Yi as saying “We need to strengthen solidarity and build a stronger community with a shared future; we need to tide over the current challenge together and build a China-Africa community of health for all; we need to pursue win-win cooperation to build a China-Africa community of development for all; we need to embrace our responsibilities and work toward a community with a shared future for mankind.”

“At present, the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century, and COVID-19 is accelerating the evolution of the international order”.

He continued, “The new challenge calls for new responsibility, and the new situation calls for new actions. 2020 is a crucial year for China to achieve the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and embarks on a new journey to fully build a modern socialist country.

“I have been in Nigeria for two years. I am fortunate to be an eyewitness to so many great things happening in this great nation. And I feel proud that China has been proved to be the strategic partner of Nigeria in its pursuit of peace, stability and prosperity.

“As the largest developing country in the world, China highly values its strategic partnership with Nigeria, the largest developing country in Africa. Over the past two decades, the all-round, wide-ranging and high-quality bilateral cooperation between China and Nigeria has been a pace-setter for China-Africa cooperation.

“Under the strategic guidance and personal commitment of President Xi Jinping and President Buhari, China and Nigeria have significantly enhanced political trust and secured fruitful outcomes in practical cooperation. Nigeria remains China’s largest project-contracting market, largest export market, second largest trading partner, and major investment destination in Africa. People-to-people exchanges have been thriving.

The number of Nigerian students’ studying in China rose to 6800, which stands first in all African countries. In this year’s fight against the pandemic, China and Nigeria enjoyed great solidarity and support from each other.

“Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-Nigeria diplomatic relations, and will see the next FOCAC meeting to be held in Senegal. China stands ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Nigeria and other African countries, to open up a far brighter future for China-Nigeria relations and China-Africa relations,” Yong said.

It would be recalled that twenty years ago, Chinese and African leaders gathered in Beijing to inaugurate the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

Patoma Admin by — November 22, 2020 in Others 0

Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola has reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to completing the ongoing reconstruction of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano dual carriageway.
He stated this at the town hall meeting of stakeholders organised by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing held in the Kaduna State University Conference hall, Kaduna on Thursday.
Fashola said, “ Mr. President is more passionate and concerned about finishing this road and many others before his constitutional term ends.”
He also said the objective of the town hall meeting was to expose the realities and explain the challenges involved in the construction of the road.
Responding to various questions from stakeholders who wanted to know why the construction work on the road was taking too long, the Minister explained that one of the reasons why work could not commence early on the road was as a result of the request made by the some members of the National Assembly to expand the road from two lanes to three lanes.
In his words, “Shortly after we flagged off the road, we received a letter from the Senators in the National Assembly asking the Federal Government to expand the road from two lanes to three lanes, that was not from us ,it was from the National Assembly,  the Senators and they wrote to the President and copied my Ministry.
Explaining further, Fashola stated that based on the directive from the Presidency to undertake that expansion, “we needed to redesign an expansion to accommodate about 40 different bridges on this road to align with the lanes.
” So if they are going to expand from two to three lanes, a new design needed to be created. The process for doing that required us to hire a design consultant. We had to follow the procurement process established by the National Assembly,” he said
Accordingly he said, the procurement process is a long one which entails advertising, waiting for a period of six weeks after advertisement, reviewing of tender, picking of consultant and going to the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) and finally to the Federal Executive Council for approval to hire a consultant to do the design requested.
The Minister also disclosed that, after going through all the processes of procurement for redesigning to three lanes, the Ministry received another instruction to revert back to two lanes due to paucity of fund.
Fashola also attributed the delay in completion to the total length of the road and the process of construction.
He explained, “Each Lane is 375km. So if you multiply that by four, we are building a thousand and five hundred kilometres of highway. No matter how hard you tried to work, if there was 25 hours in one day to do this work, we will commit to it, but the truth is that materials take time to react, minimum and maximum processes must be observed. “
Responding to a question on the Kaduna  Western By-pass, the Minister explained that the Kaduna State government  initially requested it to be transferred to  the State and the request was granted, but later due to the inability of the state to raise the financing for it , the commencement of the work was stalled.
He added that, a recommendation to put the project under the Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme was later considered and approved.
He explained, “As far as the Western By-pass is concerned, let me also say that it is on record, Kaduna State was the first State to apply for the transfer of Federal Road to them, that I recommended to the Federal Executive Council and Council approved and I transferred it to the State Governor in his first term. It was after the unsuccessful attempt by the Kaduna State government to raise financing that we recommended that it be put under the Infrastructure Tax Credit  Scheme.”
In her response to some of the questions raised at the the town hall meeting, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs  Zainab Ahmed stated that her ministry would work closely with the Ministry of Works and Housing and Messrs Julius Berger to expeditiously work on the reconstruction of  the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano dual carriageway in order to ensure completion before the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
She explained that the issue of funding has been addressed because the Ministry of Finance has given Six hundred and fifty million US dollars ($650,000,000 USD)  to the National Sovereign Investment Authority  (NSIA) whose responsibility is to generate additional fund to ensure that the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano dual carriageway and other designated projects are fully funded.
In his address, the leader of the delegation and Chief of Staff to President Muhammad Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, assured the people that  President Muhammad Buhari’s “commitment is real and is going to be realizable before the end of his tenure.”
The Managing Director of Messrs. Julius Berger, who also made presentation at the town hall meeting, revealed that the company has introduced a new innovative Cold Recycling method of constructing roads in Nigeria, which he said is being used for the first time on Nigerian roads for the on going  reconstruction of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano dual carriageway way.
He listed the benefits of Cold Recycling as achieving shorter construction time, conservation of resources, cost effectiveness,  enhancing road safety and impacting positively on the environment.
The Managing Director also stated that the scope of work on the roads have been divided into  three sections which are; Section One,  Abuja to Kaduna road with 165.5km;  Second Section is Kaduna to Zaria with 73.4km and the Third Section is Zaria to Kano with 137.0km .
Patoma Admin by — November 22, 2020 in Others 0