Nigeria-China Relations: Effect On Power And Economic Growth In Nigeria

Abstract

Essentially, Nigeria is undoubtedly one of China’s largest markets in West Africa cum Africa as a whole. The paper examines the effect of Nigeria and China relations on power and economic growth. Since rural development is seen as one of the basic things needed for sustainable national development, Nigerians opened their market to the Chinese products ranging from pad-lock/mortis door keys, zincs, air condition, refrigerators, auto spare parts down to rechargeable lamps which are mostly needed to power our industries and also generate electricity. Dependency theory provided the theoretical model for this paper. The result of the study revealed that household consumption, gross investment and net exports has positive and significant effect on gross domestic product, while government expenditure has negative and insignificant effect on gross domestic product. The study concludes that there is a trade imbalance between Nigeria and China, which in most cases favours the Chinese due to its high rate of export to Nigeria with little import from Nigeria. Even with the trade imbalance between the two nations, Nigeria stands the chance to gain a lot from China’s model of growth, by making investments, diversifying her export commodities, providing production facilities, and building human and infrastructural capital to ensure a rapid increase in growth just like China. Based on the findings, the paper recommends that the federal government of Nigeria should hurry and pursue the problem of electricity in her economy to enhance regular power supply in the urban areas, and also uplift rural development. More so, Nigeria government should encourage massive direct investment, improved power supply and the location of production facilities in Nigeria by the Chinese firms rather than trade relations to correct the imbalance and provide more jobs for Nigerians.