FG seeks USD500m loan for public broadcasting sector - ITREALMS

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The Federal Government of Nigeria is seeking a 500 million United States Dollar loan to execute some three major projects in the public broadcast sector, reports ITREALMS.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lia Mohammed disclosed this while welcoming the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Chui Jian Chun, on a courtesy visit to his office, commended China for extending its cooperation with Nigeria beyond culture and tourism to infrastructure development in the country.

He urged the Chinese Ambassador to facilitate the granting of the 500-million-dollar loan to Nigeria by the China Export-Import Bank for the execution of unidentified three major projects in the public broadcast sector.

The Minister also lauded the cooperation between the StarTimes of China and the Nigerian Television Authority, which culminated in the birth of the Integrated Television Services (ITS), which is the Federal government-owned signal distributor that is playing a major role in the Digital Switch Over in Nigeria.

He equally listed the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge rail lines, which are already in operation, the ongoing work on the Kaduna-Kano railway, Abuja Light Rail, the upgrade of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri narrow gauge, Abuja-Keffi-Makurdi road and the building of new airport terminals in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano, among others, as the “visible monuments that testify to the warm relations and great cooperation between the two countries.”

Further, Alhaji Mohammed called for the signing of the two Memoranda of Understanding between Nigeria and China in an effort to boost tourism between the two countries, stressing that the two MoU include the Facilitation of Group Travels by Chinese Tourists to Nigeria as well as Travel Facilitation through the Approved Destination Status (ADS) respectively.

He said Nigeria, like China, has huge tourism attractions to give effect to the MoU, adding that if just 1% of the 130 million Chinese tourists who travel annually comes to Nigeria, that will be 1.3 million tourists, which will be a big boost to tourism in Nigeria.

“There are two MoU between Nigeria and China on the Facilitation of Group Travels by Chinese Tourists to Nigeria and Travel Facilitation through the Approved Destination Status (ADS). Though the two MoU date back to 2019, they have not been signed. It is important that our two countries work together to negotiate and sign these MoU to promote tourism between them,” Alhaji Mohammed said.