Fruitful China-Nigeria Economic and trade Cooperation

Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa with vast lands and abundant natural resources. It is also the most populated country on the continent whose 180 million people are exploring their potential vigorously. Nigeria has been making strides in economic growth since the beginning of the 21st century, and it is one of the fastest growing economies in the world over the last decade.

As big developing countries, China and Nigeria have complementary advantages in natural resources, funds, human resources, and markets, which offer great potential for cooperation.

2016 marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationship and the 11th anniversary of the establishment of strategic partnership
between China and Nigeria.

During those years, economic and trade cooperation has always been like an anchor and propeller of China-Nigeria relations.

Especially in recent years, such cooperation has been expanding rapidly, whether on scale, in scope, or in the number of forms.Firstly, the bilateral trade has been growing quickly with record figures. In 2015, the bilateral trade volume between China and Nigeria was 14.94 Billion US dollars, which was 8.3% of total trade volume between China and Africa, and 42% of total trade volume between China and ECOWAS, enabling Nigeria to continue to be China’s third largest trading partner in Africa.

Secondly, great achievements have been made in infrastructure cooperation between China and Nigeria. A large number of projects have been completed or being implemented with Chinese funds, advanced technologies and services, such as Abuja-Kaduna railway project, Abuja light rail project, Lagos light rail project, Airport terminal expansion projects in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano, National Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone project and the Zungeru hydropower project, etc. As the cooperation s going deeper and deeper, the relationship between China and Nigeria in infrastructure development has become the closest partner ever.

Furthermore, China’s investment in Nigeria is mutually beneficial to the socioeconomic development of both countries with many highlights. Nigeria is one of the most important destinations of Chinese investment in Africa. The realistic demand of the industrial development and huge economic potential in Nigeria has attracted a great number of Chinese enterprises to invest in Nigeria. This not only helps to meet the demand of socioeconomic development in Nigeria but also broadens the economic development room in China.

So far, China has invested a total of over USD 2.5 billion in Nigeria in areas such as petroleum, solid minerals, telecommunications, broadcasting, construction materials, and agriculture.

President Xi Jinping announced 10 major China-Africa cooperation plans at the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the end of last year.

The core contents of the plans are to help Africa accelerate its industrialization process and to improve its self-development capacity to get rid of the plight as soon as possible that Africa’s development is affected by the price fluctuation of primary products. Cooperation plans put forward by China on industrialization, agricultural modernization, and infrastructure construction also aim to meet the goal, which are fully in line with Africa’s development orientation and demands. In other words, the plans will help Africa further achieve real economic independence after achieving political independence.

President Xi Jinping met with Nigerian President Buhari in New York and Johannesburg last year, and two leaders agreed that both sides should avail themselves of traditional friendship and complementary advantages to open up new areas and explore new ways for practical cooperation, expand cooperation in trade, investment, finance, human resources, agriculture, and fishing, strengthen industrial capacity cooperation in cars, household appliances, steel, construction materials, textile, and food processing of related products, so as to achieve a more comprehensive relationship.

The two leaders have pointed out the areas where efforts need to be made. It is believed that President Buhari’s incoming visit to China, which will be the first African leader to visit China after Johannesburg Summit, will breathe new life into the bilateral economic cooperation. It is also believed that during his stay in China, the two leaders will further discuss on how to fully implement the fruits of the Summit including the 10 major cooperation plans and relevant financing arrangements and how to carry them out into projects which are conducive to Nigerian economic development.

In the near future, both countries should actively implement the agreements reached by the leaders, and seize the historic opportunities to tap into the
potential for cooperation, so that both sides can achieve their goals through sincere cooperation in order to boost China-Nigeria economic and trade
cooperation to a new stage.

Author: Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Zhao LinXiang