Nigeria's Future Railway Engineers Are Being Trained in China

While China's new railways in Africa are generating a lot excitement there's also an equal amount of concern over who will maintain this new infrastructure once Chinese contractors handover the project to local stakeholders. In Nigeria, it's going to be someone like Atolagbe Shakirudeen Olabanji. Atolagbe just graduated a few weeks ago with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from Central South University in Changsha, China. He and 45 classmates from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria's Kaduna state all received full scholarships from the state-owned China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to study topics related to railway engineering. Once their studies are complete (some, including Atolagbe, are going on to pursue master's degrees) and they can safely travel back to Nigeria, these young graduates will start work with CCECC to take over responsibility for the country's new Standard Gauge Railways that are now coming online. Atolagbe joins Eric & Cobus from Changhsa to discuss what it was like to study in China and also to explain what he hopes to do in the future as a part of a new generation of Nigerian railway engineers. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @elshaks1 SUPPORT THIS PODCAST. BECOME A SUBSCRIBER TO THE CHINA AFRICA PROJECT. Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following: 1. A daily email newsletter of the top China-Africa news. 2. Access to the China-Africa Experts Network 3. Unlimited access to the CAP's exclusive analysis content on chinaafricaproject.com Subscribe today and get two-weeks free: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribe