China firm signs $12b deal to build Nigerian railway

Beijing: A state-owned Chinese company has signed a $12 billion agreement to build a railway along Nigeria’s coast that it billed as China’s single largest overseas contract, state media said on Thursday.

China Railway Construction Corp Ltd (CRCC) signed the official construction contract with the Nigerian government on Wednesday in Abuja, the Xinhua News Agency said. The Nigerian railway will stretch for 1,402 kilometres (871 miles) along the coast, linking Lagos, the financial capital of Africa’s largest economy and leading oil producer, and Calabar in the east, according to the report. The $11.97 billion deal marks China’s largest single overseas contract project so far, it said, citing CRCC.