Vice President Kashim Shettima has disclosed that Nigeria attracted $1.27bn in international capital from BRICS nations by June 2024, marking a big rise from the $438.72m recorded throughout the identical interval in 2023.
The BRICS bloc includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, alongside newer members together with Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Talking on the 2024 China-Africa Inter-Financial institution Affiliation Discussion board in Abuja on Wednesday, Shettima, represented by the Particular Adviser to the President on Normal Duties, Dr Aliyu Modibbo, highlighted the rising financial ties between Nigeria and BRICS nations.
He famous that Nigeria’s standing as a associate nation inside the bloc underscores its dedication to fostering strategic partnerships for home progress.
Shettima mentioned, “Nigeria has all the time been open to strategic alliances that help our home progress targets. This explains our energetic engagement with the BRICS nations, whilst a non-member state, as seen in our participation within the BRICS Summit held in South Africa final yr.
“Our dedication to those relationships was additional solidified on the October 2024 BRICS Summit in Russia. We’re happy to witness the rising inflow of international capital from BRICS nations, which amounted to $1.27bn as of June 2024, a considerable enhance from simply $438.72m throughout the identical interval in 2023. This displays the deepening of our improvement partnerships and the mutual belief that continues to develop between us.”
The Vice President emphasised China’s place as Nigeria’s main buying and selling associate, with complete commerce between the 2 nations amounting to N7.38tn within the first half of 2024.
He attributed this to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s diplomatic efforts, which culminated within the signing of 5 key Memoranda of Understanding throughout Tinubu’s official go to to China in September 2024.
These agreements included initiatives aligned with the Belt and Street Initiative, aimed toward bolstering Nigeria’s infrastructural improvement.
He mentioned, “With a complete commerce worth of N7.38tn as of June 2024, China stays Nigeria’s primary buying and selling associate. This underscores the significance of deepening our bilateral relationship with China, particularly inside the realm of economic and banking methods.
“President Bola Tinubu’s diplomatic efforts to strengthen our ties with China are clear proof of our dedication to this strategic partnership.”
Additionally talking on the occasion, First Financial institution Group CEO, Olusegun Alebiosu lauded the China-Africa Inter-Financial institution Affiliation for fostering commerce and funding ties.
He harassed the necessity for progressive options to get rid of limitations to commerce between Africa and China, describing the partnership as pivotal for industrialisation and financial diversification on the continent.
Alebiosu mentioned, “Because the host of this yr’s occasion, FirstBank is totally dedicated to the achievement of this over-arching CAIBA goal inside the shortest doable time-frame.
“As an establishment, via our devoted Chinese language desks (manned with each Chinese language nationals and Mandarin-speaking personnel), now we have taken concrete steps to enhance our understanding of the Chinese language tradition, enterprise philosophy, and the wants of the quite a few Chinese language corporations working throughout all our working nations.
“At FirstBank, we’re additionally poised to double down on our protection of the Chinese language market via growth of our enterprise presence past Beijing to different vital industrial facilities in China, together with Guangdong and Shanghai.
“These steps mirror the strategic significance that FirstBank has ascribed to China particularly and Chinese language companies usually.
“As we deliberate all through at this time’s session, I urge all contributors, particularly members of CAIBA, to rededicate ourselves to the beliefs and targets that the Affiliation seeks to attain by exploring progressive methods to scale back and get rid of present limitations to the circulation of commerce and investments between Africa and China.
“I’m totally satisfied that with the fitting help from different stakeholders – authorities establishments, multilateral our bodies, and personal sector players-, the China-Africa relations can turn out to be a extra highly effective pressure for socio-economic and institutional improvement than it’s at this time.”
The Vice President of China Improvement Financial institution, Wang Weidong, highlighted the financial institution’s contributions to enhancing China-Africa relations via infrastructure tasks and help for small and medium-sized enterprises.In keeping with him, these initiatives have created 270,000 jobs throughout 33 African nations, reinforcing the socio-economic advantages of the partnership.