The Federal Government has described China’s decision to grant zero-tariff treatment to 100 per cent of tariff lines for African countries as a major opportunity to accelerate Nigeria’s industrialisation, create jobs and expand non-oil exports.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, said Nigeria would work to convert the new market access into increased domestic production, investment and actual shipments of Nigerian manufactured and value-added goods to China.
The minister spoke in a message to an international seminar organised by the Centre for China Studies in Abuja at the weekend. The seminar, themed “China’s Zero-Tariff Treatment on 100% of Tariff Lines for African Countries and its Implications for Structural Economic Transformation in Africa,” examined the implications of the policy for Africa’s economic transformation.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu described the initiative as a historic opportunity to move Africa-China relations beyond the traditional emphasis on “aid and loans” towards “trade and production”.
She said the expanded access to the Chinese market could enable African countries to reduce their dependence on raw commodity exports by developing value-added products such as processed agricultural goods, textiles, leather, pharmaceuticals and other manufactured products.
For Nigeria, the minister described duty-free access to China’s market of about 1.4 billion people as a “game-changer” for agro-processing, textiles, solid minerals and manufacturing.
She said the policy was consistent with the foreign policy priorities of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly the administration’s focus on prosperity diplomacy and economic diversification.
However, the minister warned that preferential market access would achieve little without a corresponding expansion in Nigeria’s productive capacity. “Zero tariff is meaningless if we have nothing to export,” she stressed.
She said the government would therefore prioritise sectors with strong export potential, including cocoa processing, sesame, leather, garments, pharmaceuticals and renewable energy components.
According to her, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission and other relevant government agencies would work with Chinese investors to establish factories and production facilities in Nigeria capable of supplying both the domestic market and China.
The minister said the initiative could boost export earnings, generate foreign exchange, expand small and medium-sized enterprises, create jobs, promote technology transfer, develop infrastructure and reduce poverty, while helping Nigeria narrow its longstanding trade imbalance with China.
She, however, identified several constraints that must be addressed, including inadequate electricity, limited access to affordable finance, weak logistics, infrastructure deficits, information gaps and difficulties in accessing Chinese buyers.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu also stressed the need for Nigerian exporters to comply with international standards, particularly food safety, sanitary and phytosanitary requirements.
She said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would facilitate stronger regulatory cooperation between Nigerian agencies, including the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, and their Chinese counterparts.
The minister further advocated streamlined shipping arrangements, trade-financing mechanisms and payment systems involving the naira and renminbi to reduce transaction costs for exporters.
She also called for effective rules of origin to prevent the trans-shipment of goods from non-African countries through African states to exploit the preferential access to the Chinese market.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu assured Nigerian businesses that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would coordinate with the NIPC, the Chinese Embassy in Abuja, Nigerian diplomatic missions in China and other stakeholders to help exporters overcome regulatory and market-entry barriers.
She said the government was determined to ensure that China’s zero-tariff initiative translated from a diplomatic announcement into factories, production, jobs, exports and foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria.
The minister urged the private sector to seize the opportunity, declaring: “To our private sector, the door to China is now fully open. The question is: what are we taking through it?”
The challenge comes as Nigeria intensifies efforts to diversify its economy, expand non-oil exports and attract productive investment, with the Chinese market offering a potentially significant destination for Nigerian value-added products.
