China has said it would need more crude oil exports from Nigeria, in spite of the recent changes in prices.
Zao LingXiang, Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja. The total amount of export to China was only about one million barrels in 2015, which was just 1.3 per cent of Nigerian annual oil export. “In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter whether Iran comes back or not; Chinese companies want to import more crude oil from Nigeria,” he said.
He said current trade volume between both countries stood at $14.94 billion in 2014, making Nigeria third largest trade partner of China in Africa. The economic counsellor added that Nigeria’s trade figure was 8.3 per cent of China’s total trade volume with Africa and 42 per cent of the total trade volume between China and Africa. He said that China also sought to explore other areas of cooperation with Nigeria which he noted would be of benefit to both parties. “China is the largest developing country in the world and Nigeria is the largest developing country in Africa and both countries have complementary advantages in natural and human resources, funds and markets. “Right now, the Nigerian government is trying to diversify its economy which is fully in line with the 10 China-Africa cooperation plans announced at the summit on China-Africa trade in Johannesburg in 2015.
“There are great potential for cooperation between China and Nigeria in the fields of industrialisation, agricultural modernisation, infrastructure construction, financial services, trade and investment facilitation, among others.” He, however, added that both countries had made “remarkable achievements” in the areas of infrastructure cooperation. He said that the coming visit of President Muhammad Buhari to China in April would facilitate the implementation of agreements reached at the 2015 China-African summit in Johannesburg.
(Culled from PUNCH)
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