Hommam Al Nassim 
Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Lamine Zine and China National Petroleum Corporation Chairman Zhu Zukun signed three agreements related to the joint marketing of crude oil.
One such agreement, which includes a $400 million loan, was announced to guarantee revenues from Niger’s crude oil exports.
The Niger News Agency said the loan would be repaid within 12 months from crude oil export revenues starting in May, with an interest rate of up to 7%.
At the end of the signing ceremony, the Nigerien Prime Minister stressed that these funds will be managed transparently and will be directed with priority to strengthening the country’s defense and security, noting that part of them will be used to finance investments in agricultural development and improving medical services.
“It is important to say that in this very difficult context where our country has been subjected to punitive measures by institutions to which we belong, in particular the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union, and there were a lot of proposals before our country regarding the sale of crude oil, it was difficult to resist but we resisted,” the Prime Minister noted.
For its part, the Nigerien National Oil Company announced that the export of Nigerien crude oil to international markets will begin in May 2024 via the Niger-Benin pipeline, which was built with $6 billion financing, mostly from China.
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