ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria has struck a $1.2 billion deal with a Chinese company to revive a gas processing facility, a move officials say could propel the African country to a leading position in aluminum production weir.
The deal between Chinese state-owned CNCEC and the BFI Group, a major investor in Nigeria’s Aluminum Smelter Company, is expected to revive the 135 million cubic meter gas processing plant at the smelter. The Nigerian Minister of State for Gas announced this on Tuesday via a post on the social platform X.
Minister of State for Gas Ekperikpe Ekpo expressed optimism over the “significant investment,” stating that it would put the smelter “back on the path to becoming a leading aluminum producer for both the domestic and international markets.”
Economic ties between Nigeria and China deepened in 2016, when the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari visited Chinese President Xi Jinping and signed a number of agreements. Since then, Chinese companies have been contracted to build railways and provide infrastructure in Africa’s most populous country.
Despite being a major oil producer in Africa, Nigeria has some of the highest poverty and hunger levels in the world.
President Bola Tinubu, who took office last year, has initiated reforms to reduce government spending and attract foreign investment. However, the country continues to face economic challenges, including 28 years of high inflation. The currency, the naira, is at a record low against the dollar.
Many Nigerians have taken to the streets in recent months to protest the economic hardship they say the reforms are causing. In August, at least twenty protesters were shot dead and hundreds of others arrested.
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