Chinese supermarket in Nigeria shut for allegedly barring Nigerians

A Chinese-owned supermarket in Nigeria's capital has been shut by the authorities over allegations that it denies entry to African shoppers.

The supermarket in Abuja allegedly "exclusively permits individuals of Chinese descent to enter", Nigeria's consumer protection watchdog said on X.

It has summoned the supermarket's owner.

The Chinese chamber of commerce in Nigeria has denied the racism allegations.

The supermarket is a tenant in a building run by the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC).

Boladale Adeyinka, an official at Nigeria's Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), said that the watchdog had launched an investigation into the allegations.

This follows widespread outrage on social media after some Nigerians shared their experiences of allegedly being turned away by security when they attempted to go to the supermarket.

In one of the videos, a man said he had discovered the supermarket online but was blocked from entering the complex where it is located.

"At the gate, the security people told me that the supermarket is strictly for Chinese people. If you are a Nigerian, you can't go inside or buy anything," he said in the clip posted on X, formerly Twitter.

In another video on X, a group of Nigerians are seen visiting a building to verify the reports that non-Chinese shoppers were being turned away.

A security guard outside the entrance appears to tell them that the supermarket had cut off access to Nigerians since January.

Several Nigerians have demanded the closure of the supermarket, including former senator Shehu Sani, who said that any store in Nigeria that was not accessible to citizens "should be forcibly opened or be pulled down".

In a statement quoted by local media, the CGCC said it stood for "equality and inclusiveness".

"Our principles are to enhance friendship between the people of both countries and promote economic development," it added.

The FCCPC quoted an administrator at the building, Sanusi Shuabiu, as saying that the supermarket mainly sold Chinese groceries and that while it was initially opened to serve the building's tenants, it permitted entry to outside shoppers, including non-Chinese visitors.

The supermarket's owner has not yet commented.

She has been summoned to appear before the consumer protection agency by Wednesday.

The watchdog says that the supermarket will remain closed until she complies with the summons.

Nigeria has a Chinese population of less than 10,000, according to the Statista website.

By Mansur Abubakar & Gloria Aradi, BBC

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Related story: Rail projects in Nigeria drive home China's belt and road commitment to African infrastructure development

 

Rail projects in Nigeria drive home China's belt and road commitment to African infrastructure development

Building railways and bridges in Africa are a key focus for Beijing, after senior diplomat for African affairs Wu Peng announced that China will support infrastructure development in Nigeria, while on a trip to the West African nation last month.

It is a sign that China is still committed to enhancing ties and financially backing growth in African nations. But observers have also said that a change in banks financing a major rail project in Nigeria points to China's desire to commercialise its overseas lending.

Wu, the Chinese foreign ministry's director general of African affairs, previously announced the signing of a finance agreement for the Kaduna-Kano railway, a landmark project in the Belt and Road Initiative in Nigeria.

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It came after a promise in October by Chinese President Xi Jinping to finance and complete the Abuja-Kano and Port Harcourt-Maiduguri railway projects during a meeting with Nigerian Vice-President Kashim Shettima on the sidelines of the third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing.

China had agreed to provide 85 per cent financing for the construction of the two railway projects, while Nigeria was to pay the remaining 15 per cent. This money has since been earmarked by Nigeria for the project, according to Shettima's office.

The funding was originally meant to come from state-owned policy bank China Eximbank, but it pulled the plug back in 2020, citing the Covid-19 pandemic and concerns about Nigeria's ability to repay the loan.

But now the money is being provided by another state-owned policy bank, the China Development Bank (CDB). According to observers, this illustrates China's wish for the commercialisation of overseas loan financing.

And it is not an insignificant sum. For example, with the 203km (126-mile) Kaduna-Kano railway section, after China Eximbank stopped its funding in 2020, Nigeria courted CDB last year.

Previous estimates had put the total cost of the Kaduna-Kano section of the line at US$1.2 billion. The Nigerian government committed US$380 million, with the revised cost to be borrowed set at US$973 million.

Documents put before Nigeria's parliament in April 2023 showed that the Chinese lender would advance a 15-year loan at an interest rate of 2.7 per cent plus the six-month Euro Interbank Offered Rate.

China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has been responsible for most of the project, which will connect the northern city of Kano with the capital Abuja.

The rubber-stamping of the rail project, according to observers, points to a predicted rise in Chinese lending to Africa in 2024 - a year, they noted, in which Beijing is expected to host the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

Tim Zajontz, a research fellow at the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, said the financing agreement shows that Nigeria's infrastructure sector remains important for China.

Not only are Chinese contractors widely mobilised across the Nigerian market, "one must also not forget that Abuja has actively sought funding from non-Chinese sources after China Eximbank had pulled out," he said.

"Considering the intensifying geopolitical competition over African infrastructure, President Xi's recent commitment to continue to fund Nigeria's 'railway renaissance' is not surprising," said Zajontz, who is also a lecturer in global political economy at the University of Freiburg.

Although China Eximbank and CDB are both state-owned policy banks, the switchover is "an example of China Eximbank's more restrictive lending policy and indicates a further commercialisation of Chinese overseas loan financing", he said.

Zajontz, who is author of the book, The Political Economy of China's Infrastructure Development in Africa: Capital, State Agency, Debt, also talked of a wider shift in China's overseas development finance.

"Chinese funding is now more restrictive and the focus has shifted from concessional to commercial lending," he said.

Yunnan Chen, a senior research officer at the London-based Overseas Development Institute think tank, said the CCECC is hugely dominant in Nigeria, so it makes sense that they would be the natural contractor for the project.

"CDB loans will likely be more costly and less favourable in terms," she added.

Eximbank also withdrew funding for a section of a railway in Kenya. It had previously financed the US$5 billion leg from the coastal port city of Mombasa to capital Nairobi, with an extension to the central Rift Valley town of Naivasha.

But the bank declined to fund the next section to Malaba, a town on the border with Uganda due to concerns over the project's commercial viability.

However, Kenya is in a much weaker bargaining position than Nigeria, Chen said. "Nigeria is always in a more comfortable position to borrow, at least for the time being, because it has the oil revenues, which make it creditworthy."

According to Chen, Kenya is trying to negotiate the terms of its existing Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) loans, while also trying to ask for new financing for the extension to Uganda. "It's a difficult bargaining position to be in."

Mark Bohlund, a senior credit research analyst at REDD Intelligence, said that Nigeria - similar to Tanzania - is one of the major African economies with a relatively low level of Chinese borrowing. "And it is in this perspective that I view this new loan," he said.

"My assumption is that China Eximbank will be more active than CDB in Africa over the medium term but I think Nigeria might be an exception to the rule in this regard as their oil export revenue allows them, in theory, to take on more debt at commercial terms, which is the majority of CDB's lending, than other African countries."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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China beats Tesla to lithium deposits in Nigeria

Kaduna, a state in northwestern Nigeria, has selected China’s Ming Xin Mineral Separation Nig Ltd. (MXMS) to build the country’s first lithium-processing plant, with a plan to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles (EVs).

On January 13, the Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency tweeted pictures of its leadership team reviewing the plant’s construction. According to Kaduna State’s mining company, the plant is being built on 9.3 hectares of land. Khalil Nur Khalil, the executive secretary of the state’s investment promotion agency, told Rest of World that the plant is a “game changer,” which he believes will lay the foundation for Nigeria’s ambitions to build “battery factories” and produce “EVs in Kaduna.”

This comes more than five months after the Nigerian government claimed it had rejected Tesla’s proposal to purchase raw lithium from the country.

Ayodeji Adeyemi, special assistant to the minister of mines and steel development, told Rest of World that Tesla’s proposal was rejected because it did not align with the country’s new mining policies.

“Our new mining policy demands that you add some value to raw mineral ores, including lithium, before you export to create jobs and build industries,” Adeyemi said. “They don’t have to turn ores into finished goods. We are only asking them to add some value before exporting.”

In January, Elon Musk, the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, said he sees the company’s biggest competition coming from China. That same month, Tesla even slashed the prices of its cars in China for the second time since September last year.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), China already controls 60% of the world’s lithium processing and is exploring new frontiers, like Nigeria, to expand its dominance. Kaduna is one of several Nigerian states with lithium deposits. At least seven other states in the country are confirmed to have the mineral — essential in the manufacturing of EV batteries — in commercial quantities.

The Nigerian government has relied significantly on funding from China for several landmark projects, including the Abuja Light Rail project, planned terminal expansions at four major airports, and the National Public Security Communications System project. According to Nigeria’s debt management office, Chinese loans represented 3.94% of the country’s total public debt as of March 2020.

Despite increasing Chinese interest in infrastructure financing and construction, the U.S. is still one of Nigeria’s top five sources of imported capital. In 2021, Nigeria received over $2.2 billion from the U.K., over $677 million from the U.S., and $10 million from China, official records from the National Bureau of Statistics show.

Analysis from the IEA shows that to reach net zero emissions by 2050, about 2 billion EVs and hybrids need to be produced and used. However, global lithium reserves can only make about 2.5 billion EVs. This means that lithium will continue to be a valued, in-demand mineral, given that it has alternative uses apart from making EV batteries. It is used to make batteries for laptops, phones, and digital cameras and is also essential in the manufacturing of planes and trains.

“Nigeria can take advantage of this market by leveraging the domestic value-added process to the mineral,” Oghosa Erhahon, a lawyer and energy transition analyst, told Rest of World. “For example, manufacturing batteries for exports. It’s one thing to limit foreign activities, but not building sustainable infrastructure for lithium mining is not favorable, especially with the national plans to diversify exports.”

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First phase of light rail project by Chinese company completed in Nigeria

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nigeria's southwestern state of Lagos on Wednesday marked the completion of the first phase of a 27-km electric-powered light rail project.

Undertaken by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) since 2010, the completed tracks of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Blue Line project span 13 km in the first phase and cover five stations.

The LRMT Blue Line project is the first rail infrastructure traversing Okokomaiko, a densely populated area in the western part of Lagos, and Marina, a business district on Lagos Island.

It is part of an ambitious transport master plan, which aims to meet the demands of the state as Nigeria's commercial and economic hub and one of the world's fastest-growing megacities.

Declaring the completion of construction on the Blue Line project at a ceremony, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, described the moment as "historic," saying Lagos became the first sub-national government in West Africa to fund and deliver a rail system from the state's balance sheet.

Sanwo-Olu said the milestone was a culmination of "impactful reforms" initiated in the state's transport ecosystem.

"Today, we are making history with the completion of the historic rail line, which is the first phase of the Blue Line," Sanwo-Olu said. "Now, we have put the challenges behind us; from now on, we will focus on the benefits of this project for our people."

The governor said the construction of the second phase of the Blue Line rail project, which covers 14 km, will be launched immediately after the inauguration of the first phase next month.

More than 2,000 Chinese and local employees worked together to optimize the construction even in the face of multiple challenges, such as complicated geology and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Chu Maoming, China's consul general in Lagos.

Huge infrastructure projects like the railway construction would continue to energize the Nigerian economy and promote speedy development, Chu said.

Speaking at the event, Zhang Zhichen, chairman of CCECC Nigeria Limited, said the Chinese firm will continue to maintain the enterprise spirit of "diligence, integrity, and tenacity" while building the follow-up projects with high quality and efficiency.

The first phase of the LMRT Blue Line project is expected to carry over 250,000 passengers daily when in full operation.

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Nigeria working on prisoner transfer agreement with China

The Federal Government is working out a prisoners’ transfer agreement with China, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, announced in Abuja on Thursday.

Onyeama made the announcement at a news conference on the achievements of the current administration since it came into power in the past two years.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that thousands of Nigerians are being held behind bars in China for various offences, including those attracting death sentence.

Human rights groups in Nigeria have, however, been drawing the attention of the Federal Government to the plights of the Nigerian prisoners.

A group, the Black African Re-orientation and Development Organisation, recently told the government to secure the release of no fewer than 6,000 Nigerians in Chinese prisons.

Onyeama said the release of the prisoners could not be facilitated because there was no existing agreement between Nigeria and China on the transfer of prisoners.

“The issue of Nigerians in prisons in China is something we are dealing with and the prisoner transfer agreement is something we have to have an agreement on with China.

“We are working to have one in place. We have taken that on board and we are trying to get our prisoners to serve the rest of their terms here.”

The minister disclosed that government had stepped in to plead for commutation of prisoners on death row in the Asian nation.

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