China to pay $550 million for construction of two Nigerian communication satellites NigComSat

Almaty. January 4. Silkroadnews - China will pay $550 million for construction of two Nigerian communications satellites NigComSat, according to Vanguard information portal.
Construction of satellites will be fully financed by China EXIM Bank and China Great Walls that have already made an arrangement with the government of Nigeria, minister of communications Alhaji Adebayo Shittu reported this after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja.
According to him, the satellites, which construction will take about two years, will serve the African continent.
“Initially, the agreement was that they will provide the cost of the two satellites at $550 million minus 15 per cent, which is the counterpart funding. Because we could not afford the 15 per cent, we have renegotiated with China EXIM Bank and China Great Walls, which are the manufacturers and they have agreed to pay the entire $550 million to procure two new satellites. The two new ones will ensure that the Nigerian satellite company which is NigCOMSAT can conquer the entire African continent with regard to the provision of satellite communication services,” the minister said.
With this he explained that work on the satellites will start immediately after signing of the relevant documents.
“We hope that before the end of this month, we will sign the papers and then they will commence the production. It is at the completion of the production that the two satellites will be launched,” said Adebayo Shittu.
He explained that the money is not a loan, but rather Chinese companies’ equity participation in a state-owned company in Nigeria.
“Of course Nigeria has nothing to lose because we are not putting anything into it in terms of financial resources. The Chinese are not just going to market our satellite to the entire African continent but also perhaps by legislation insists that all Nigerian entities must patronize the Nigerian satellite company rather than going to Israel, UK, US for satellite services,” he added.