Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president, is seeking approval from lawmakers to borrow nearly $6bn from the Export-Import Bank of China for railway projects, as his government seeks to revive a recession-hit economy through spending on big infrastructure projects.

Nigeria’s economy suffered its first contraction in 25 years last year, a sign of its near total dependence on revenues from oil exports. Mr Buhari’s administration hopes capital projects will create jobs and help the economy bounce back, and said late last year it would boost its foreign borrowing in 2017 to fund that spending.

The country sold a $1bn Eurobond that was almost eight times oversubscribed in February and has not ruled out going to the bond markets again. But the government is pursuing other options, as evidenced by the effort to borrow from one of Beijing’s policy banks.