Over 200 Chinese companies have expressed interests in the country’s mining, agriculture, confectionary and pharmaceutical sectors. Checks showed that Nigeria’s bilateral trade with China rose to about $23.5 billion in June 2015 from a mere $3.4 billion that it was back in 2009. Speaking during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Chinese delegation and a consortium of Nigerian businessmen, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), Mrs. Uju Aisha Hassan-Baba, in Abuja, said that the Council was willing to facilitate the Chinese companies’ business activities in Nigeria. She said: “We will also ensure that your investment is safe in Nigeria. We are willing to give you one-stop-shop services and other incentives that will ease your investment in the country.
We expect you to come with the profile of your companies and what you have to offer to us. We will be ready to open up our markets to you, that is why the NIPC is involved in this so that we can see what kind of investors you are moving away from the oil sector and hoping that these investors can fit into these areas mentioned because some of these areas are the priority of government, especially the agricultural sector. The agriculture sector as you know is the one that provides the most jobs,” she added. The investments, according to the leader of the Nigerian consortium coordinating the Chinese firms, Gen. Chiemeka Egbemena, are mainly companies involved in petroleum, iron and steel, agricultural and manufacturing sectors, as well as free trade zone. He said that the Chinese government was committed to encouraging and supporting Chinese companies’ investment in Nigeria, just as it continued to support the country’s efforts at attracting foreign investment.
“The major significance is that we are falling in line with the new policy of government to look elsewhere for the growth of our economy and that is the desire of those companies that are coming to invest in the area where the world seems to be moving. “About 200 Chinese companies are coming to do business in Nigeria. We are most interested in mining and agricultural and allied industry. These areas are our priority. Mutual benefits have been enjoyed by the two countries in agriculture, economics, infrastructure, communication, cultural exchange and education over the years of cooperation, Egbemena said. Also, the President of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ABUCCI), Mr. Joe Wenegieme, said that the Chinese investors would come into the country any moment from now to explore potential investment opportunities with a five-day trade fair. “We have sent letters out to different state governments, local people and private organisations to come and meet with the investors so they can have the opportunity of discussing with them,” he said.
Meanwhile, an international relations expert, Charles Kolawole, has given reasons why China is massively investing in Africa. In a presentation at the University of Ilorin’s Post-Graduate Departmental Seminar held recently, Kolawole, who noted that the role of China goes beyond trade and investment to offering alternative socio political models for development, said that the Chino-African relationship has blossomed through trade with about $120 billion dollars’ worth of trade flowing between Africa and China in 2014 alone and also generating $17 billion trade deficit with Africa. “On the one hand, whereas China seeks resources to power its growing and expansive industrial base, it is also looking to establish a market for its products and services, while Africa is endeavouring to generate income to finance its poverty alleviation efforts, promote domestic consumption and support industrialisation to underpin economic development.
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