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President Muhammadu Buhari will visit China next week to attend a business forum and sign “cooperation agreements” with the Chinese government, according to a report by Reuters on Wednesday. Spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Lu Kang, stated that the Nigerian President will visit China from Monday, April 11 to Friday, April 15.

Special Adviser to the President on Media, Femi Adesina, confirmed the visit stating that, "Both countries will also be signing some bilateral agreements to strengthen their relationship."

According to some sources, the Nigerian government plans to sign a loan deal with China that could be worth $2 billion. The federal government is seeking for funds to finance the deficit in the N6.06 trillion 2016 budget that has been passed by the National Assembly. The proposed deficit is N2.22 trillion ($11.21 billion).

In February, Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, had said negotiations are ongoing with the World Bank and the African Development Bank to borrow funds to finance the deficit. There were reports that the government would borrow $3.5 billion from the two multilateral financial institutions – $2.5 billion loan from the World Bank and $1 billion loan from the AfDB.

The protracted slump in oil prices has led to significant shocks on the revenues of the Nigerian government. Foreign reserves have declined from $28.98 billion recorded as of January 4, 2016 to $27.75 billion reported on April 5 by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Like the Chinese loan, the government says its loans are being secured for infrastructure projects in the country and not for recurrent expenditure. As of December 31, 2015, total public debt of the country stood at N12.6 trillion ($65.4 billion).  

President Buhari returned to Nigeria on Monday, April 4 after attending the 4th Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC, United States, to show Nigeria’s support for multilateral efforts to promote a common approach and commitment to nuclear security at the highest levels.

The Nigerian President said “Nigeria also intends to strengthen its partnerships with relevant international organisations to promote capacity building, particularly in the development of the Nigerian Nuclear Security Support Centre, Physical Security Upgrades and Human Reliability Programmes Implementation.”