The Chinese are never leaving Nigeria soon. Aside from the loans the Asian country is throwing into Nigeria, the President, China Chambers of Commerce in Nigeria, Mr Ye Shuijin has just said there are now more than 160 Chinese companies operating in Nigeria with more than 200, 000 Nigerian workers, and the quantum of investment in the Nigerian economy by these Chinese companies is now pegged at $20bn, representing about 5% of Nigeria’s current Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This should constitute the 8th largest contributor to Nigeria’s GDP after Agriculture 21.65%; Trade 17.06%; Information & Communication 12.41%; Manufacturing 9.91%; Mining & Quarrying 9.67%; Oil 9.61%; Real Estate Services 5.63%.
More Chinese Loans, More Debt
The more investment, the more the loan. Nigerian Federal Government recently announced plans to borrow another loan from China of up to $1 billion. The credit facility which will be provided by the China-Exim Bank will increase Nigeria’s escalating debt profile to N360 billion.
Nigerian Debt Management Office (DMO) record last year showed that over $73.2 billion were borrowed by the Nigerian government as at June 2018.
It doesn’t appear the loan is finishing soon. Mr. Ye Suijin said apart from national loans, Chinese companies in Nigeria are owed several sums of money for contracts already completed.
“The government still owe us for the Murtala Muhammed expressway project in Abuja which was completed in 2010. In 2015, we faced payment issues because of the recession, but what we did was to ensure the payment of our members of staff, not only CGC but all our chamber’s members. Many Chinese companies had to bring in money from China to pay their workers. The recession almost wiped off Chinese companies in Nigeria. At the end of 2016, the government commenced payment, but we still have many challenges,”he said.
Importation of Chinese Prisoners to Nigeria
Nigerian National Parliament recently raised alarm on incessant importation of Chinese prisoners to work in foreign companies in Nigeria.
The allegation is that the Chinese prisoners are often shipped into the country as expatriates while Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) complete the remaining deal of allowing them free entry. The Chinese Chambers of Commerce President has since denied this report saying it was not possible to do such a thing, and that the Chinese embassy monitored the Chinese companies. However, there still remains some clouds about how many Chinese workers are really in Nigeria.
Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian, in a 2017 interview didn’t seem to know the exact number of Chinese in Nigeria.
‘‘We don’t have the registration system. According to our assessment, I think there are 40,000; some say there are 50,000 Chinese compatriots here. I got it from the news, even for the Spring Festival, that a lot of Chinese are going back home. And they stay in Guangzhou and other places in China, maybe some similar number of Nigerians are doing business in Chin,’’ he said.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh, a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.