President Muhammadu Buhari will leave Abuja for South Africa today to participate in the Forum on China/Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg where he will ask China’s President Xi Jinping to fund rail and power projects urgently needed to diversify an economy hit hard by a plunge in oil prices.
The meeting would be a continuation of his interaction with Jinping which began in New York during the last General Assembly of the United Nations, UN.
The President would be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema; Minister of Transportation, Chubuike Amaechi; and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah to the forum which would commence on December 4 and end on December 5.
A statement by the presidential spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina, stated that during the meeting in New York, President Buhari had indicated to Xi Jinping that “he wanted China to re-commence stalled rail projects under new terms that would see China providing nearly all the financing required
