China Development Bank (CBD) has signed a US$629 million loan to support the construction of a deep sea port in Nigeria, which will be built by a consortium led by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC).

The loan facility agreement was signed at a ceremony in Lagos on October 23. According to a report from Xinhua News Agency, CHEC President Lin Yichong said that the company will hand over the first phase of the Lekki Deep Sea Port project within 30 months.

CHEC has also come up with US$230 million in equity and is a majority shareholder in the project company which has signed a 45-year concession with Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited.    

At the signing ceremony, CDB Deputy General Manager Zhang Aijun highlighted the extent of the bank’s business in Africa. As of June this year, CDB has provided investment and financing for nearly 500 projects in 43 African countries, in support of the development of sectors such as energy, mining and telecom.

According to CHEC, Lekki Deep Sea Port phase 1 consists of two container berths with a depth of 16.5 metres and a total length of 680 metres.

The port will be able to handle very large container ships with a maximum capacity of 18,000 TEUs. The annual handling capacity in phase 1 of the port could reach 1.2 million TEUs, and after completion of phase 2, the capacity will reach up to 2.5 million TEUs.

Biodun Dabiri, chairman of Lekki Port Board of Director, said upon completion, the Lekki Deep Sea Port would become one of the deepest ports not only in Nigeria but also in sub-Saharan Africa, helping Nigeria to be the transshipment hub of the region.

Elsewhere in Africa, on October 3 there was an official handing-over ceremony for the Benguela Railway to the Angolan government by construction company China Railway 20 Bureau Group Corporation (CR20).

The 1,344-kilometre railway connects the Atlantic port cities of Lobito and Benguela with the eastern city of Luao, which borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

CR20 has been working on the rehabilitation of the Angolan line since 2006, and it was mostly completed in 2014. In neighbouring DRC, the 422-kilometre Dilolo to Kolwezi line was finished in 2016, with the two countries’ rail systems connected between the border towns of Luau and Dilolo.

The first shipments of copper and manganese ore from mines at Kisange in the DRC were carried over the Benguela Railway in 2018.

The Chinese contractor has since been finishing off work on station buildings and platforms, and the entire Angolan rail project was officially handed over on October 3.

Attending the event were Benguela Deputy Governor Leopoldo Muhongo, Board Chairman of Caminho de Ferro de Benguela Luís Lopex Teixeira, and director general of CR20 Han Shu Chen, together with the director of the National Institute of Railways of Angola Ottoniel Manuel.

Also in Angola, on October 18, President Joao Lourenco and Transport Minister Ricardo de Abreu inaugurated the Chinese-built Kuito Airport in central Angola's Bie Province. The airport, also built by CR20, is an important hub for the Bie Plateau.

Meanwhile in mid-October, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta officially launched the construction of the Nairobi Expressway, aimed at reducing traffic congestion in the capital city.

The 26.8-kilometre dual carriageway, which is being implemented by the Kenya National Highway Authority (KENHA), will be built under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model with China Roads and Bridge Corporation as concessionaire and investor. Project repayments will be generated via tolls.

According to KENHA, the road project will be constructed at a cost of 62 billion shillings (US$599 million) and will be completed in the next 36 months.

KENHA noted that the expressway is a critical piece of infrastructure because it provides seamless connectivity to the northern corridor, which connects the port of Mombasa to landlocked countries in East Africa.

However, another Chinese-built infrastructure project recently inaugurated in Kenya has come in for heavy criticism.

On October 16, President Kenyatta waved off the first passenger train on the US$1.5 billion extension to the rail network connecting Nairobi to Naivasha.

This extension links to the US$3.2 billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) between the port of Mombasa and Nairobi that opened in 2017. However, analysts say that the extension only makes economic sense if it connects onwards from Naivasha to the Ugandan border town of Malaba, and in April, China and Kenya failed to agree terms on this planned US$3.7 billion project.

In addition, there have been delays in building an industrial park in Naivasha to promote freight traffic.