China loans: Nothing bad in borrowing – Lai Mohammed

Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, has declared that there is nothing wrong in borrowing.

He said what matters is that funds are invested in infrastructure rather than services or consumption.

The minister insisted that Nigeria is effectively utilizing the funds it borrowed from China and elsewhere for infrastructural development and job creation.

Mohammed spoke at the construction site of the Ibadan Train Station on Saturday.

He inspected the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail Project with his Transportation counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi.

“We didn’t borrow money for services or overhead expenditure. We borrowed money for capital projects: rail; roads; bridges; power – infrastructure generally,” he said.

Mohammed expressed delight at the level of work on the train stations and the modern coaches procured to convey passengers and goods on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge rail line.

In his remarks, Amaechi said $1.6billion is being expended on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge rail line and the stations, with $200-$300million counterpart funds from the Federal Government.

Ameachi appealed to the National Assembly to approve the $5.3billion loan request from China.

He said this would enable the government to execute the Ibadan-Kano Standard Gauge rail line.

The Buhari administration is facing criticism over the China loans.