China pledges to continue doing business with Nigeria

Lixiang stated that though Iran strategically entered the oil market, Chinese companies would continue doing business with Nigeria.

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“In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter whether Iran comes back or not; Chinese companies want to import more crude oil from Nigeria,” LingXiang said.

In Africa, Nigeria is china’s third largest trade partner; in 2015, Nigeria’s total crude oil export to China was about one million barrels, which was about 1.3% of annual oil export.

Referring to the level of development of both countries, Lixiang added that Nigeria and China has many similarities, which can be beneficial to both countries.

“China is the largest developing country in the world and Nigeria is the largest developing country in Africa, and both countries have complementary advantages in natural and human resources, funds and markets.

“Right now, the Nigerian government is trying to diversify its economy, which is fully in line with the 10 China-Africa cooperation plans announced at the summit on China-Africa trade in Johannesburg in 2015.

“There are great potential for cooperation between China and Nigeria in the fields of industrialisation, agricultural modernisation, infrastructure construction, financial services, trade and investment facilitation, among others,” Lixiang said.