The New Asian Scramble For Africa: A Study Of Sinonigeria Trade And Investment Relations, 2007-2019

The continent of Africa witnessed an unprecedented socio-economic and political exploitation during the colonial experience. The 1884 Berlin conference provided the platform for European countries to scramble and partition Africa, and Nigeria ended up as a territorial colony of Britain until after 1960 independence. Overtime, Nigeria and indeed Africa is witnessing another round of socio-economic exploitation, this time not by European countries alone but led by Asian countries, of which China occupies a front row. It is against this backdrop that this paper assesses the trade and investment relations between Nigeria and the Asian economy of China. The main thrust of the paper is to determine how the trends of relations between Nigeria and China have affected the balance of Nigeria's growth and development in infrastructure, trade and investment. Relying on secondary data, the study assesses Nigeria-China trade and investment relations, noting particularly, areas of trade surpluses and deficits, and the direction and impact of China's investments in the Nigeria economy. The paper identified Nigeria's over-dependence on the oil sector resulting from the insufficient diversification of the nation's economy; export of unprocessed raw material; inadequate productive infrastructure amongst others as impediments to Nigeria-China Relations. Based on the key findings inherent in the study, the study suggests policy recommendations that will help Nigeria to adequately utilize the opportunities that its strategic partnership with China presents.