According to the Financial Times, state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. (CRCC) has signed two contracts worth nearly $5.5 billion with Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Citing stock exchange filings the Financial Times said deals included a $3.51 billion intercity rail line in Nigeria and a US$1.93 billion residential real estate project in Zimbabwe.

The contracts are part of China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ strategy that includes plans to build roads, railways, ports, natural gas pipelines and other infrastructure in Africa and other developing regions.

In November, the Chinese company signed another contract worth $12 billion for a separate rail line in Nigeria.

The Nigerian project further cements the company’s leading role in the Nigerian construction industry, and is also a milestone in the “going global” of Chinese railway, said Meng Fengchao, board chairman of CRCC.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had met his Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert Mugabe, last week in Indonesia on the sidelines of the Asian-African Summit.

The Bric Post reported that the infrastructure deals were inked ahead of the upcoming sixth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.