Nigeria stands to gain immensely from a range of mutually beneficial agreements with China, writes LINDA NWABUWA-AKHIGBE
Nigerians are weary of bilateral agreements which, from past experience, tended to favour the foreign country or entity, leaving us with the short end of the stick. Often, some of these agreements are long on promises and short on delivery. This may be why the recent agreements signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his counterpart, Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China, elicited a lot of curiosity. The groundbreaking agreements are as ambitious as they are significant to creating a mechanism to actualize the aspirations of both countries.
Nigeria and China share a diplomatic relationship spanning half a century and since 1971, have worked towards bilateral agreements aimed at curtailing trade deficits between them. Before the advent of the Tinubu administration, this strategic partnership had grown to include trade, economic development and infrastructure. China was able to provide some of the financing for projects like the Abuja-Kaduna Railway, Abuja Metro Light Rail, and airport terminals in Abuja and Port Harcourt.
China also made some solid investments in Nigeria's oil and gas sector and in 2007 helped Nigeria develop its satellite technology, the Nigerian Communications Satellite, NigComSat-1. However, what the latest agreements have done is to deepen and expand the existing bilateral agreement to encompass even more areas of common interest, making Nigeria, potentially, China's largest
trade and investment partner in Africa. The two leaders met on the heels of the 2024 Forum of China Africa Cooperation, (FOCAC) a mammoth partnership where over 30 African countries stand to benefit from the 360 billion yuan or $51 billion dollars in new financing for African nations over the next three years. This is excluding the 30 infrastructure projects across the continent intended to boost connectivity while creating one million jobs. All these are part of China's famous Belt and Road Initiative, and as Xi Jinping noted, FOCAC has become both an effective mechanism for promoting practical cooperation between China and Africa, and a banner for South-South cooperation.
China was determined to use the opportunity provided by the forum in Beijing to "review the historical experience of China-Africa friendship, promote the building of a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future, and inject new momentum into the development of China-Africa relations in the new era." Nigeria stands to benefit immensely from a range of mutually beneficial agreements contained in 13 Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) that has essentially upgraded Nigeria-China relations to the status of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Details of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning has subsumed under five listings, show how the agreement dovetails into President Tinubu's Renewed Hope agenda and his pledge to reduce poverty, end food insecurity, create jobs, revive industrial growth and provide sustainable development in sundry areas of national life. The MoU (ECS008) for instance, focuses on poverty reduction, mutual economic development and general well-being.
The aim is to draw on China's experiences in policies, macroeconomics, technological innovation and sustainable development. The massive reforms that have seen China grow from a developing nation to arguably the world's most advanced nation on many fronts, provide both impetus and lessons for President Tinubu's economic reforms. Some of these include his single Forex market, removal of oil subsidy, and the streamlining of taxes - all of which are expected to drive business, reduce unemployment and push the nation's GDP to $375 billion by year the end of 2024. Similarly, MoU (ECSO15) sets out parameters for promoting Global Development Initiative through food security, public health reforms, development of sustainable energy alternatives, digitalization, capacity building and human capacity development.
During his visit to China, President Tinubu toured the redoubtable Huawei Technologies Research Centre in Beijing which doubles as a hub for digital literacy and training. This led to an agreement between the communication giant and Nigeria's Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy for engaging Nigeria's vibrant and technology-savvy youth to be trained on how to thrive in a knowledge based economy that is increasingly competitive and digital driven. Undoubtedly, this will provide new employment opportunities for our teeming youth, raise the country's GDP, push more people out of poverty and enable more citizens to get better health care, better education and more of such.
In addition, Huawei has proposed to help improve Nigeria's energy deficit by fast-tracking energy supply by the Rural Electrification Agency, and finishing the Zungeru Hydropower facility. It is also interested in the Ajaokuta - Kaduna - Kano gas pipeline project for energy sourcing for industrial purposes. MoU (ECS027) is a three-year plan for cooperation in key areas of energy, mining, metallurgical refinery, infrastructure, manufacturing and agriculture which are listed for "practical cooperation with the principle of enterprise initiative, government guidance, market-based operation and mutually beneficial cooperation." The agreement affirms Nigeria's willingness to adopt the Chinese model by investing in the exploration of the nation's raw materials, and moving from a raw material producer to other areas of manufacturing with the attendant benefits that accrue from mass production of finished goods for domestic consumption and export.
To this end, China has agreed to assist in retooling Nigeria's railways, the modernisation of the Ajaokuta - Itakpe - Abuja line while proposing to handle a new rail line for the Lagos - Calabar coastal highway. There are already precedents to the potential of these promises not least with the construction of the Abuja-Keffi Lafia-Makurdi road dualization, and some roads to ease traffic congestion in the Federal Capital Territory carried out by a Chinese contactor. MoU (ECS035) addresses Human Resource Development, with China agreeing to hold series of bilateral training programmes for Nigerians, in the fields of health, agriculture, and development financing. There is a clear desire to compliment existing local knowledge with China's practices among farming populations in urban and rural areas with the financing, technology and the training needed to improve yields and access financial outlets.
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, "agreements were signed on shelled peanuts and groundnut export as well as phytosanitary for import standards... with the governors of Lagos and Kaduna present" and others are expected to follow suit. The MoU on Jointly Promoting Belt and Read Initiative (ECS022) covers 20 cooperative projects, three cooperative platforms, 28 cooperative mechanisms and four supportive policies, to be coordinated at the level of Director General by each country. It is a novel idea that may have benefitted from the visit of Vice President Kashim Shettima to China for the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2023 where he agreed to the establishment of an intergovernmental committee to map out the infrastructure projects being undertaken by China in Nigeria as they relate to economic diversification plans and technology transfer to Nigerians.
Overall, the MoUs cover a wide range of fields from infrastructure development to economic growth, human capital development, digital economy and green development, to energy and mineral resources where local companies working with Chinese firms will set up plants in Nigeria for local consumption and export. According to President Tinubu, the new partnership would engender "robust development, stability and security," and promised that "Trading and investment partners will have easy access to bring in their investments and seamlessly take their resources out." To ensure that these agreements see the light of day and produce the needed result, the president has appointed Joseph Tegbe, a chartered accountant and tax expert who has worked as a business strategist in Africa and the Middle East, to be the Director General and Global liaison for the NigeriaChina Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
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Mr Tegbe will engage continuously with the Chinese counterparts, and ensure that all deliverables are met and synchronized with national development goals. Meanwhile three memoranda were signed by Minister Tuggar and the President of China Media Group, Mr. Shen Haixiong between his group and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), for content exchange of educational and cultural programmes, programme production as well as personnel and technology exchanges, thereby contributing to greater enhancement of friendly ties.
As the former Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Cui Jianchun, who is now his nation's top diplomat in Hong Kong, said when leaving Nigeria in March this year, the strength of the strategic partnership between China and Nigeria proves that, "the friendship of nations lies in the affinity of people, and the affinity of people lies in the affinity of hearts." It is hoped that this bilateral agreement lives up to the high expectations.
Nwabuwa - Akhigbe is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Strategic Communications
