Politics: China to Start Importing From Nigeria - CBN Governor

China will soon begin to import goods from
Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) governor has said. It is expected that the
move will help narrow the very wide trade gap
between the two country.

Emefiele said the federal government is “talking
with China” so it would also be “importing some
of its own items from Nigeria”.
Speaking at a press conference at the World
Bank headquarters in Washington, on the last day
of the 2016 World Bank/IMF spring meeting, he
also said part of Nigeria’s deal with China is that
the country becomes the Asian country’s trading
hub in West Africa.
“China has appointed South Africa as its trading
hub for Remnibi transactions in the south African
region, has appointed Kenya as its trading hub
for east and central Africa,” he said.
“And Nigeria, the mandate that we signed is for
us to be appointed as the trading hub in the
West African sub region. In all, we expect that it
is going to be mutually beneficial.
“We are talking to China so that it would also be
importing some of its own items from Nigeria, so
that the trading balance can be sort of reduced.
“Will Nigeria benefit from this? I want to say
categorically that Nigeria benefits from this. It’s
less pressure on the dollar and consequently on
our reserves.”
Emefiele added that the CBN could not continue
with indeterminate adjustment (devaluation) of
the currency, without taking necessary structural
reforms.
“For the first time, we are taking structural
reforms seriously in the country. We’ve always
talked about, oh, when you do an adjustment,
follow it up with structural reforms.
“But we are saying this time we’ve done an
adjustment and we are following it up with
structural reform, where we are saying we must
diversify the economy away from depending on
oil.
“I’ve said it that we have seen people who are
coming in an investing, during the china trip, we
saw people who said they can now come in
instead of exporting those items into Nigeria,
they can now bring those plants into Nigeria and
begin to produce those things in Nigeria because
our climate is good,” he said.