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By Sarafina Christopher<\/p>\n
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Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, says China\u2019s imports from Nigeria rose by about 2.3 billion dollars in the first half of 2026, an increase of 80 per cent.<\/p>\n
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Yu disclosed this during an international seminar on \u201cChina\u2019s Zero-Tariff Measures and Africa\u2019s Economic Structural Transformation\u201d, organised by the Centre for China Studies (CCS) on Friday in Abuja.<\/p>\n
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According to him, the surge follows the implementation of China\u2019s zero-tariff policy for African countries.<\/p>\n
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The ambassador said Nigeria-China bilateral trade also reached 18 billion dollars within the same period, representing a 35 per cent year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n
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He said the figures demonstrated the immediate impact of China\u2019s zero-tariff policy, which took effect on May 1 and covers all 53 African countries with diplomatic relations with China.<\/p>\n
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\u201cChinese imports from Nigeria surged 80 per cent to 2.3 billion dollars, with monthly growth exceeding 40 per cent in both May and June,\u201d Yu said.<\/p>\n
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According to him, the policy has already contributed to an estimated six per cent increase in overall African exports to China.<\/p>\n
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He said China-Africa trade reached a historic 207 billion dollars in the first half of 2026.<\/p>\n
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According to him, Chinese imports from Africa rose to 29 billion dollars in May and June alone, representing a 24 per cent year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n
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Yu said the policy had reduced trading costs for Nigerian exporters, citing savings recorded on commodities such as sesame, cattle bone granules and liquefied propane.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEvery 100 tons of sesame exported saves 11,000 dollars in costs, while Nigeria\u2019s annual export of 7,000 tons of cattle bone granules saves nearly 450,000 dollars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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He added that a single shipment of 23,000 tons of Nigerian liquefied propane attracted about 300,000 dollars in tax savings under the policy.<\/p>\n
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The envoy, however, noted that the removal of tariffs alone would not guarantee Nigeria\u2019s economic transformation.<\/p>\n
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According to him, there is need for improved product quality, reliable supply chains and local processing.<\/p>\n
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He urged Nigerian businesses to increase investment in value addition and meet Chinese market standards to sustain access to the country\u2019s 1.4 billion consumers.<\/p>\n
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Yu also called for stronger trade and investment cooperation, including industrial parks, technology transfer and training, saying China was ready to support Nigeria\u2019s efforts to process raw materials locally.<\/p>\n
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\u201cChina aims to accelerate negotiations on trade facilitation, investment protection and quarantine standards to offer a stable institutional environment for investors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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He urged Nigerian exporters and small businesses to take advantage of platforms such as the China International Import Expo, Canton Fair and China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo to connect directly with Chinese buyers.<\/p>\n
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The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Bianca Ojukwu, said the zero-tariff policy was an opportunity to transform Nigeria from an exporter of raw materials into a producer of value-added goods.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe objective should be to ensure that a greater proportion of the value generated from Africa\u2019s resources remain within Africa,\u201d the minister, represented by the ministry\u2019s Permanent Secretary, Dunoma Ahmed, said.<\/p>\n
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Also speaking, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi, said Nigeria must focus on exporting rather than merely exporting.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe question before us is not, can Nigeria export more? The question should be, can Nigeria export better?\u201d Abdullahi said.<\/p>\n
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He identified processed cassava, premium rice, spices, hibiscus, cashew products, soybean products, fruits and vegetables as areas with significant export potential.<\/p>\n
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Abdullahi also said that Nigeria must complement tariff-free access with modern processing industries, efficient logistics, quality assurance, traceability, storage infrastructure and export certification.<\/p>\n
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The Director of the Centre, Charles Onunaiju, said the seminar was designed to move discussions on China\u2019s zero-tariff policy from policy announcements to practical implementation.<\/p>\n
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He said the policy represented an opportunity for Africa to address structural economic challenges, but warned that African countries must develop strategies to fully exploit market access.<\/p>\n
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Onunaiju said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could play a critical role by harmonising standards, strengthening regional value chains and creating economies of scale for African exporters.<\/p>\n
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He said the seminar\u2019s objective was to bring together critical stakeholders to identify practical solutions to challenges that could prevent African businesses from benefiting fully from the Chinese market.<\/p>\n
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Onunaiju urged African countries to treat the zero-tariff policy as \u201ca starting point\u201d for deeper industrialisation rather than an end in itself.<\/p>\n
NAN reports that the seminar brought together government officials, farmers, manufacturers, exporters, traders and other stakeholders to examine how African economies could maximise the new market access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, says China\u2019s imports from Nigeria rose by about 2.3 billion dollars in the first half of 2026, an increase of 80 per cent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[415,416,240,364],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-affairs","tag-china","tag-importation","tag-nigeria","tag-trade"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Chinese-Ambassador-to-Nigeria-Yu-Dunhai-1.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":617,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions\/617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}