File: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping 

By Victoria Ojeme

The Chinese Embassy in Nigeria says China-Nigeria trade relations is the largest in the continent with an increase of 0.7 percent at $13.66 billion in 2020 over the previous year.

A spokesperson of Zhao Yong, Chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of China in Nigeria disclosed this in an interview with VANGUARD today in Abuja.

He said “the bilateral trade volume between China and Nigeria was $13.66 billion in 2020, an increase of 0.7 per cent. Among them, China’s exports to Nigeria were $11.58 billion, decreased by 2.4 per cent; imports from Nigeria were $2.09 billion, a year-on-year increase of 22.7 per cent.”

“To China, Nigeria has remained the biggest importer and second largest trading partner in Africa. Our bilateral trade volume is more than tenth of China’s trade with the whole continent.”

China said that in 2019, the bilateral trade volume between China and Nigeria reached US$19.27 billion, an increase of 26.3% over the previous year, ranking first among China’s top 40 trading partners in terms of growth rate, among which Nigeria’s exports to China increased by 43.1 per cent.

“The trade volume between China and the 15 countries of the ECOWAS was $34.55 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 0.3 per cent. China’s exports to ECOWAS were $27.61 billion, an increase of 1.2 per cent; imports from ECOWAS were 6.94 billion U.S. dollars, at a decrease of 5.8 per cent,” the embassy said.

According to the statistics of China Customs, the trade volume between China and Africa was $133.62 billion from January to September, a year-on-year decrease of 13.3 per cent.

China’s exports to Africa were $79.70 billion, down 2.9 per cent year-on-year, and imports from Africa were $53.91 billion, down 25.3 per cent year-on-year.

Zhao Yong, Chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of China in Nigeria had earlier said that China has built more than 6,000 kilometers of railways and roads, developed 20 ports and more than 80 large power facilities in Africa in efforts to deepen China-Africa trade relations.

He spoke on a statement commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

Tong said the forum has established itself as a pacesetter for cooperation with Africa, a champion of multilateralism, and a fine example of mutually beneficial cooperation.

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He said “The past twenty years have been a journey of productive cooperation between China and Africa. China-Africa trade reached $208.7 billion last year, and China’s direct investment stock in Africa stood at US $49.1 billion, 20 times and 100 times more than 20 years ago respectively. China has built more than 6,000 kilometers of railways and roads respectively in Africa, developed nearly 20 ports and more than 80 large power facilities in Africa, which has brought significant changes to Africa’s economic and social development.”

According to Yong, China has provided about 120,000 government scholarships to African countries, established 61 Confucius Institutes and 44 Confucius classrooms in 46 African countries, and sent a total of 21,000 medical workers to 48 African countries, offering treatment to about 220 million patients.

He explained that China-Africa cooperation has not only contributed to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, but also contributed to the strength of Africa through unity.

“This fully demonstrates that developing countries, through independent exploration, are fully capable of finding a path of rejuvenation suited to their own national conditions,” he said.

Vanguard News Nigeria