Nigeria secures $2.5bn gas pipeline finance

Stakeholders will sign an agreement with Chinese lenders by Q2 2020 to fund the country’s biggest pipeline project

Nigeria will close a $2.5bn financing agreement with Chinese lenders by the start of the second quarter of 2020 to fund the single biggest gas pipeline project in the country’s history, after months of holding talks with China on financing a project seen as being central to expanding gas output in the West African nation. On completion of the 614km Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) natural gas pipeline, new gas-to-power plants will push power generation capacity to more than 10,000MW, in a country of nearly 200mn people that has faced perennial electricity shortages for decades. Africa’s biggest economy struggles with power output, generating less than 7,000MW. Three new captive gas-fired plants, t