Minister says FG committed to ensuring balance of trade with China

chika ebuzor

February 24, 2016 5:16 AM

Abubakar said that Nigeria and China had bilateral relations in trade, technology transfer and industrialisation, among others, spanning decades.

The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajiya Aisha Abubakar

The Federal Government has expressed its commitment to work with the Chinese government towards mutually beneficial balance in the trade between both countries which is now in favour of China.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the volume of trade between Nigeria and China in 2015 stood at 14.94 billion dollars in favour of China.

The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajiya Aisha Abubakar, said this when she received in her office the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Gu Xiaojie, on Tuesday, in Abuja.

"China and Nigeria have been in bilateral relationship for so long.

"What needs to be enhanced is the level of development particularly in Nigeria when it comes to balancing of trade, technical capacity for Nigerians, transfer of technology, industrialisation and all of these things that Nigeria needs as it embarks on its own industrialisation journey.

"We are also diversifying our economy, it is not just industrialisation, we also have solid minerals and so on.

"We already know what China is capable of doing, we have seen it, and we also know the people of China, they are not strangers to us.

"When you compare the population and level of development, China and Nigeria are almost the same but China has been able to make a difference.

"Nigeria would also like to make a difference, and we would like this hand holding to ensure that Nigeria makes this difference.’’

chika ebuzor