This brief review was written in December 2024
Recently, the China Youth Daily interviewed the trade commissioner of Nigeria stationed in China. The person stated that trade between the two countries is continuously deepening and has strong economic complementarity.
But what exactly is this so-called complementarity? He said, “Nigeria’s exports to China mainly include agricultural products and mineral resources, while imports from China are primarily electrical equipment, machinery, textiles, and agricultural machinery.” “Nigeria can benefit from China’s manufacturing strength by importing high-quality, reasonably priced products.” What we see is that Nigeria’s exports are mostly raw materials, while imports from China are industrial products. The so-called economic complementarity is nothing more than the bourgeoisie’s propaganda of the so-called international division of labor, which in reality is the advanced industrial countries exploiting the backward agricultural countries through the industrial-agricultural scissors gap. The claim of benefiting from Chinese manufacturing and importing high-quality, affordable products is merely nonsense, and it only leads to the continuous destruction of Nigeria’s own manufacturing industry. For example, after Nigeria canceled its textile import ban in 1994, the goods dumped by China gradually strangled Nigeria’s textile industry. Chinese companies even put the “Made in Nigeria” label on fabrics and plagiarized Nigerian company logos. By 1996, Nigeria had 170,000 workers in the textile industry. By 2023, there were only about 24 textile factories with fewer than 20,000 employees, relying on imports to meet over 99% of textile demand. From 2018 to 2023, Nigeria’s industrial share of GDP fell from 22.2% to 18.6%, and from the second quarter of 2023 to 2024, manufacturing’s share dropped from 8.62% to 8.46%. Under the dumping and plundering of Chinese companies and imperialist forces, Nigeria, despite its rich natural resources, still has 83 million people living in extreme poverty according to the World Bank’s 2022 poverty assessment report. Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) also showed in 2022 that 63% of Nigerians are in poverty, with nearly two-thirds living on less than $2 a day.
Next, let’s look into the energy sector. Chinese companies invested in many energy projects, with the Mambila Hydropower Station set to become Africa’s largest hydroelectric plant. This project was only initiated after Nigeria borrowed 85% of the funds from China’s Export-Import Bank, with the loan paid directly to Chinese contractors without passing through the Nigerian government. Even with Nigeria providing the remaining 15%, the project’s ownership remains 100% with Chinese companies. Recently completed, the Zungeru Hydropower Project, Nigeria’s largest hydroelectric station, also received 75% of its contract loan from China’s Exim Bank. Chinese companies claim that the hydroelectric stations can alleviate Nigeria’s power shortages, stabilize the grid, and improve people’s living standards. However, our investigation shows that in 2019, only 45% of Nigeria’s regions were connected to the national grid, and in rural areas, only 36%. In connected areas, power is available for only about half the day. Between November 2024 and now, Nigeria experienced nine national grid collapses, and the government even set up a special committee. In fact, with the Zungeru Hydropower Station’s 700MW capacity in operation, Nigeria’s current power generation capacity is 13,610MW, with transmission capacity over 8,000MW. Yet, the total distribution capacity of 11 distribution companies is only around 4,000MW. Aging infrastructure makes the grid prone to collapse. Despite being Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria still has 86 million people without electricity, making it the country with the most people lacking power in the world. But Chinese companies are indifferent to these issues. After building the hydroelectric station, they can exploit Nigerian workers’ labor with 100% ownership. In March 2024, the average electricity price in Nigeria was 0.24 yuan, while in China it was 0.547 yuan. Since July 2024, even the minimum wage for “qualified” workers has been only 70,000 Naira (about 308.8 RMB) per month. However, Nigeria’s inflation remains high, and the Naira has depreciated to a quarter of its value over five years. The rapid decline in real wages makes it even harder for impoverished workers to afford electricity, let alone those in un-electrified areas.
As Nigeria’s government pushes for “energy transition,” implementing policies to develop photovoltaic and energy storage devices, Chinese photovoltaic industrial capitalists have also smelled blood, frantically exporting solar panels and energy storage batteries to Nigeria, seizing this rare emerging market and igniting a new wave of division. From January to April 2024, Nigeria imported 4,089 tons of lithium batteries from China, ranking second after South Africa. Even Transsion, which dumped mobile phones, has started producing energy storage devices with competitive prices. Besides exporting goods, raw material plunder is also essential. Nigeria’s lithium ore has high grade, and Chinese companies like Ganfeng Lithium, which are engaged in global lithium mining, have begun building processing plants locally and exporting lithium ore to China, further deepening the exploitation of Nigeria.
Even if Chinese “aid” and comprador praise are exaggerated, the reality of Nigeria’s increasing poverty and backwardness has already made the local people see through the colonialists’ true nature of plunder.
专访尼日利亚驻华贸易专员：合作共赢，继续扩大中尼贸易篮子_腾讯新闻
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Recently, while researching tantalum ore, it was also found that there are many niobium-tantalum ores imported from Nigeria by Zhongxiu, with 98% of Nigeria’s niobium-tantalum ore exported to China. The Kenyan Mining Company (Nigeria) Limited, operated by Chinese capitalists, has “become Nigeria’s largest supplier of niobium concentrate and the most large-scale non-ferrous metal exploration and development mining group locally.”
And the Nigerian government exempts foreign-invested enterprises from corporate income tax within five years and also allows foreign-owned enterprises to control mineral rights. The comprador is crazily selling out the country.
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