Nigeria-China trade volume hit $11.2 billion in the first half of this year, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Cui Jianchun said.
Jianchun disclosed this at the award Ceremony of the 2021 China-Nigeria cultural week as part of the one week programme lined up to mark China’s National Day and also Nigeria’s Independence Day on October 1st.
He also said that there are 6,800 Nigerian students currently studying in various tertiary institutions in China.
According to him, “In the first half of this year, the trade volume between China and Nigeria reached 11.2 billion dollars, with a year-on-year growth rate of 44.5%.
“Among them, the export from Nigeria to China reached 1.23 billion US dollars, with a growth of 23.6%.
“At the same time, Nigeria is China’s major investment destination in Africa.”
He further added that the “ The Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone and Lekki Free Trade Zone have attracted a large number of Chinese companies to invest and operate their business.”
He further revealed that Nigeria is among the 140 beneficiaries of the new Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of the Chinese government.
The envoy noted that trade between China and the BRI partners has exceeded 9.2 trillion US dollars, while direct investment by Chinese companies in countries along the BRI has surpassed 130 billion US dollars.
When fully implemented, the BRI could increase global trade by 6.2 percent and global real income by 2.9 percent, according to a World Bank report.
On Education, he said personal interaction between people to people among the two countries have been on the increase.
“At the same time, people’s communications between Nigeria and China have also flourished. Currently, the number of Nigerian students studying in China has reached 6,800, which stands first in all African countries.”
