Gains from Nigeria’s Participation at the Beijing FOCAC Summit

By Temitope Mustapha.

Recently, African leaders converged on Beijing, the People’s Republic of China, for the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) relations.

The theme of the summit was “Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a Community with a Shared Future”.

The three-day conference came at a time when the African continent is confronted with new and emerging challenges. Such challenges as the adverse impact of climate change, energy crisis, food crisis, limited benefits from globalisation, health, security, the global financial and economic crisis, trafficking and piracy, low penetration of ICT services, and increasing youth unemployment, amongst many others, have continued to inhibit development on the continent.

FOCAC provided a meeting point for African countries and China to exchange ideas, reach agreements, and develop strategies to strengthen economic cooperation and enhance Africa’s sustainable development.

The key issues deliberated on at the 2024 FOCAC Summit were the China-Africa Environment Cooperation Center, and Economic and Trade Relations, thereby strengthening trade and investment ties with China as Africa’s largest trading partner.

Two major concerns addressed at the 2024 FOCAC Summit in Beijing were debt sustainability and the promotion of infrastructure development.  Highlighting investments in critical infrastructure, this emphasized projects like railways, roads, and energy, among others, to leverage interconnectivity and drive economic growth in Africa.

President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, announced $50 billion in financial support for the continent, in addition to military aid. Jinping also pledged another $280 million in aid to African countries while proposing partnership actions to jointly advance modernization with Africa.

To deepen China-Africa cooperation and lead the globalization of the south, China set the target of working on ten partnership actions over the next three years.

At a meeting that preceded President Bola Tinubu’s participation at the 2024 FOCAC Summit, the Nigerian Leader, and the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, announced the upgrade of Nigeria-China ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership.  The leaders also agreed to build a high-level Nigeria-China community with a shared future for the mutual benefit of the peoples of the two nations.

Leading the Nigerian and other West African delegates to FOCAC, President Tinubu, as chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, re-echoed the need for global leaders to embrace multilateralism and reject protectionism.  He described this as an essential step towards achieving lasting peace, security, and stability on the African continent.

Key government officials representing focal sectors of the Nigerian economy signed and sealed major agreements for the Nigerian government, under the watch of President Tinubu and President Xi Jinping.

Nigeria displays its desire to increase opportunities by securing Beijing’s signature of a $1 trillion infrastructure drive and the endorsement of the $3.3 billion Brass Industrial Park and Methanol Complex agreement. This set the stage for transformative growth, job creation, and sustainable development. This historic partnership will positively propel Nigeria’s economic agenda while reinforcing China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

In its drive to support Nigeria’s economy towards balanced diversification and growth, the Chinese government welcomed Nigeria to its e-commerce and logistics sectors as a players in the coming years.

Deepening economic ties on existing Chinese-African cooperation, Nigeria inked several deals with the government of the People’s Republic of China on the peaceful application of Nuclear Energy, strengthening cooperation on Human Resource Development under the Global Development Initiative, Media Exchange, and Cooperation.

Building on its existing record to complete the Ibadan-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano railway projects, President Tinubu secured the commitment of the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) Limited, to fast-track the delivery of the rail project that has transported approximately nine million passengers and 180 tons of cargo since its inception.

China and Nigeria also agreed to encourage “flexible and diverse” regional monetary and financial cooperation, such as local currency swaps, to promote bilateral trade.  The two sides also agreed to cooperate on intelligence to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

Cascading the gains of the 2024 FOCAC Summit, Nigeria also participated in the summit to the advantage of sub-nationals. This created a platform for the signing of an MOU between the Kaduna State government in Northwest Nigeria and Huawei, a Chinese Company to establish a smart city among other facilities.

Also on Nigeria’s bilateral ties with China, the Lagos State Government, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to bring a 68-kilometre rail line to life.

As China implements, ten partnership actions with 360b Yuan financial support through Chinese companies to Africa, Nigeria, and the rest of Africa are ready to leverage on the new opportunities and driving forces for joint pursuit of modernization in the global south.

The world is also ready to witness significant achievements that will unfold from the new elevated comprehensive and strategic China-Africa relations under the FOCAC initiative.