By Bassey Udo
The Federal Government has reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening bilateral collaboration between Nigeria and China as part of efforts to drive Nigeria’s industrialization and economic growth.
The Director General of the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership (NCSP), Joseph Tegbe, expressed the commitment during a media interactive on Thursday in Abuja.
Tegbe underscored NCSP’s role as a critical enabler, fostering productive partnerships between Nigerian stakeholders and Chinese business leaders.
He highlighted the NCSP’s ongoing commitment to coordinating investments, facilitating stakeholder engagements, and ensuring due diligence to guarantee that Nigeria-China collaborations yield tangible, long-term benefits.
The DG reiterated NCSP’s mandate to steer the implementation about 55 projects under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), while also pursuing additional partnerships beyond the formal agreements.
“Our focus is to ensure that Nigeria not only implements FOCAC projects efficiently, but also leverages Chinese expertise, technology, and financing to reactivate Nigeria’s manufacturing and industrial sectors,” Tegbe said.
“We are paving the way for Nigerian products to gain access to Chinese and broader Asian markets, while accelerating the execution of strategic, game-changing national development projects later this year,” he added.
Following the elevation of Nigeria-China relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the establishment of the NCSP, Tegbe said Nigeria has recorded significant milestones in key sectors of the economy.
He disclosed that recent engagements with various Chinese partners have yielded over $20 billion in investment commitments, focusing on critical sectors such as agriculture, automotive manufacturing, mining, steel production, energy and infrastructure development.
These investments, he said, are set to boost food security, create jobs, and drive a new wave of industrial development in the country.
“Nigeria should not be the dumping ground for goods and services from other economies. We must produce in Nigeria. Nigeria must be the trading hub in Africa. Nigeria must emulate the principle that is driving the growth in the Chinese economy by embracing extensive long term planning; ruthless execution of plans and doing everything to scale such that it would be ddifficult to reverse what is being done,” he said.
As part of the strategic initiatives, the DG said plans are on underway to deploy six integrated poultry farms in the six goepolitical zones in the country, with each with the capacity to produce a minimum of one million eggs per day.
Besides, he said another initiative would promote Made-In-Nigeriavehicles in conjunction with China that would introduce two to three brands to be built in Nigeria.
Under the initiative, he said industrial parks are to be built in Nigeria to manufactire spare parts, while the Chinese technology would be deployed to help improve cassava yield in Nigeria.
“These initiatives is expected to begin to come on stream within th next three months,” he said.
Tegbe said the NCSP’s activities aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, aimed at fast-tracking national development and positioning Nigeria as Africa’s industrial powerhouse.
As Director General of NCSP, Tegbe said he continues to bridge policy and execution by coordinating efforts across government agencies, the private sector, and diplomatic entities to ensure Nigeria maximizes its trade and investment relations with China for sustainable economic advancement.
