The outgone year, 2023 witnessed significant milestones in the bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and China. The year started off with the inauguration of the Lekki deep seaport by former president Mahammadu Buhari in January. The facility has launched Nigeria as a major maritime hub in the West Africa sub region. The landmark project, an Investment of nearly 2 billion US dollars is a joint venture between the federal government through the Nigerian Ports Authority, Lagos state government and China Harbour Engineering company.
Built in a record time of little more than two years (July, 2020 – October, 2022) despite the pandemic, the project demonstrated China’s usual solemn commitment that neither adversity nor the changing circumstances of the International landscape would vitiate or distract the pragmatic cooperation between Nigeria and China and its tangible outcomes.
Former Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Mr. Muazu Sambo noted that the sea port “is significant because the largest ships in the world can berth at the port, and that means more tonnage, more cargo, more revenue for the port and added that over 112,000 direct and indirect jobs has been created with the operation of the port while more jobs will be created as the port expands its operation.
It is significant to note that the Lekki deep sea port was built under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a mechanism of International Cooperation featuring among other things, facility connectivity, policy coordination and people to people cooperation.
Nigeria signed to the partnership of the framework in 2018 and under it, a good number of China funded or assisted projects in Nigeria have not only being scaled up but the pace of implementation and completion have been considerably accelerated.
Following the inauguration of the Lekki deep sea port, the Lagos Mass Transit Blue rail project was commissioned. The Blue line carrying 400,000 passengers daily will increase its capacity to 700,000 passengers when fully operational. The rail system is expected to bring substantial reductions in travel time along the Mile-2 Marina corridor within the state, with a population of over 20 million residents.
The project conceived over 40 years ago and dogged with a number of local issues, its take off effectively however, began after the project was awarded to a Chinese construction giant, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation ( CCECC ) as a design and build contract under the Belt and Road mechanism of cooperation between Nigeria and China, it considerably accelerated in construction and reached a milestone when the Lagos state governor on September 4th 2023 officially opened the Blue rail transit for public use.
The Chinese firm last year also promised to deliver on the completion of the Abuja rail project in eight months. Despite these critical milestones in pragmatic cooperation between two sides, relations and engagements in several sectors have made giant leaps. The Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun formula of consolidating the existing cooperation and extending it to new frontiers through a joint mechanism of engagement; aptly titled “Sharing Chinese Harmony and Performing Nigeria-China Symphony” witnessed extensive and broad cooperation across all sectors with diligent implementation of practical projects.
As part of knowledge sharing in governance and scholarly engagement, President Xi Jinping’s iconic book ” Up and Out of Poverty”, an outline of his practical experience in policy issues regarding mobilization of human and material resources in overcoming the scourges of poverty was translated to Hausa language, one of Nigeria’s major languages was launched in Nigeria. The Hausa edition will be followed with translation to other Nigerian languages.
Towards the close of last year in October, Nigeria participated at the 3rd International Forum of the Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing, which was also the 10th anniversary of the initiative. A high level delegation led by the Vice President Mr. Kashim Shettima and comprising of eight cabinet ministers and heads of strategic Federal Government Parastatals participated at the Beijing BRI forum, among more than 150 countries and 30 international organizations. The Nigeria delegation was received at the highest level of China’s political authority, with president Xi Jinping assuring Vice President Kashim Shettima of Beijing’s resolve to deepen practical cooperation and generate more tangible outcomes.
At the side meetings of the Nigeria delegations with Chinese enterprises, over 4 billion USD deals were signed and this year present a unique opportunity for the Nigeria’s side to follow up on the deals and ensure that they are dutifully implemented.
2024 presents the opportunity to ensure that the huge takeaways and outcomes of Nigeria’s participation at the Belt and Road Forum of International Cooperation last October which amounts to more than 4 billion dollars in Investments and more importantly, President Xi Jinping’s pledge to scale up practical cooperation is turned real. As many countries in the world look up to China for Investments and other economic engagements, Nigeria is enjoined to follow – up on the outcomes of her Interactions at the BRI forum.
The indefatigable duo of Ambassador Cui Jianchun, Chinese ambassador to Nigeria and Yan Yanqing, Consul General in Lagos are both formidable and reliable bridge at the disposal of Nigeria to access, realize and turn to concrete outcomes the commitments of the two sides from the October forum.
Trade between the sides made impressive gains and has quickly regained its healthy momentum after the pandemic – induced slow down. According to report, in the first three quarters of 2023, China- Nigeria bilateral trade reached 17.25 billion USD and China’s imports from Nigeria increased by 22.5 %, making a vital impact in bridging the trade gap between the two sides. The prospects are even brighter this year. Last year in July, Nigeria established a permanent Trade House in Changsha, in China’s Hunan province, the permanent site of China- Africa Trade and Economic Expo, that holds every two years since it was established in 2018.
Nigeria has not only participated in all the editions of the Expos but has been invited to participate in China’s famous Import Expo, where countries across the world leverage to explore the opportunities of the huge Chinese market. These two essentially trade mechanisms among others, through which China has consistently invited Nigeria to explore its huge market, will play the critical roles of supporting the diversification of Nigeria’s economy, a structural transformation that has been so much talked about but with China currently offering the opportunity to shift the gear to real motion.
At the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China – Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Dakar, Senegal in 2021, the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping not only provided the support for COVID pandemic containment and control but offered a practical outline for post pandemic economic recovery.
Within the broad framework of China – Africa Cooperation, Vision 2035 jointly designed by the two sides, President Xi Jinping committed to work with the Africa side to implement nine programs within three years from then. Among the programs, the “Trade Promotion” will see China open “green lanes” for African Agricultural exports to China, speed up the inspection and quarantine procedures and further increase the scope of products enjoying zero – tariff treatment … in a bid to reach 300 billion US dollars in total imports from Africa in the next three years (2021-2024).
Nigeria should take stock of how far she has utilized this opportunity to promote exports of non – oil sector and possibly explore and trigger relevant policy instruments that would ensure a maximum utilization of this type of trade incentives. The 9th Ministerial Conference or the Summit of the FOCAC process would be held later this year, in China as the venue of the meeting alternate between China and Africa and fresh initiatives are expected to raise the momentum of the cooperation and broaden the scope of its engagement.
At the 3rd Summit of the Belt and Road International Forum, the Chinese Leader spoke up about its accomplishments and this is no fluke. Over 1 trillion US dollars has already been expended by Beijing across the world in various projects making the Belt and Road Initiative mechanism, a platform with the largest offerings of International public goods in history.
The Chinese leader noted that “Belt and Road Cooperation has progressed from “sketching the outline” to ” filling in the details” and “blueprints have been turned into real projects”.
A large number of signature projects and “small yet small”, people – centered programs have been launched and in announcing “eight major steps China will take to support joint pursuit of high – quality Belt and Road Cooperation”, he said among others that “China will promote both signature projects and “Small yet Smart” livelihood programs”.
Since President Bola Tinubu has vowed to make impressive mark on poverty reduction, a cankerworm that both existentially obstructs national development and undermines and threaten democratic construction, it is imperative to study diligently and access the main points of Cooperation in promoting ” smart yet small livelihood programs” in the Belt and Road Cooperation.
Nigerian-China Cooperation in 2024 has enormous prospects both for consolidation of various outcomes and an important historic – starting point, especially at this crucial point of Nigeria’s historic trajectory where tangible outcomes are needed more than bogus promises and empty talk
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