China’s rising stakes in the Nigerian economy has climbed up to about $40bn, said its Foreign Affairs Minister, Wang Yi, on Wednesday during a bilateral meeting with his Nigerian counterpart, Geoffrey Onyeama, in the capital Abuja.
The Minister said China had already invested up to the tune of $45 billion in the Nigerian economy. The claim comes against the backdrop of Nigeria’s official endorsement of the ‘One China’ policy which shuts out the country’s recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign entity.
Nigerian officials met their Chinese counterparts in Abuja and pledged to stick to Beijing’s “one China” policy, that Taiwan is a part of China. “Nigeria and China are strategic partners; our relations have been developing well, China has already invested or financed a total number of $22billion projects here in Nigeria; another $23 billion projects are on-going,” Yi said.
“In addition, we are also following up another over $40 billion of investments which is in the pipeline.” he added. According to him, in order to achieve further development and prosperity of the two countries, they need to strengthen their political mutual trust.
He stressed on the need to further expand practical cooperation and deepen strategic partnership between the two countries. He expressed confidence that his visit would be a successful one and play a dual role in further strengthening the strategic partnership between China and Nigeria.
