The strategic  Relationship between Nigeria and China will be further strengthened as Mr. Jiang Jianqing, Chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Limited, visits the country.

The visit, scheduled for June 16 through 18, will see Mr. Jiang paying courtesy calls to the Lagos State Governor and the Minister of Finance, among many Chinese business interests in Nigeria. ICBC, in Moody Investors Service latest ranking, is the world’s biggest bank.

ICBC has a 20 per cent stake in Standard Bank Group, the Africa based banking group to which Stanbic IBTC belongs. The China-Nigeria visit is both a historic and a unique opportunity, as China’s interest in Nigeria will bring about immense benefits to the two countries.

Chris Newson, Chief Executive officer of Stanbic IBTC said the visit of Mr. Jiang could not have come at a better time. “Nigeria has a high growth rate, but with considerable infrastructure development needs which will benefit from ICBC’s long association and expertise in infrastructure financing especially in developing countries.”

“We are proud to be associated with ICBC, a bank that is noted for the uniqueness of its products and services and its strong developmental focus. While Stanbic IBTC is already a foremost bank in the area of infrastructure financing in Nigeria, we trust that our continued partnership will contribute to broadening and deepening our services in this area, among others.”

The Moody’s report which ranked ICBC as the largest bank in the world, noted that strong regulatory controls and focus on traditional banking fortified the bank against the global financial crisis. ICBC was described as the largest bank in the world in terms of market capitalization, deposits, and total profits.

Stanbic IBTC Bank is a member of the Standard Bank Group. Since its formation in 2008 from a merger between the erstwhile Stanbic Bank and IBTC Chartered Bank respectively, Stanbic IBTC Bank has remained at the forefront of financing major infrastructural projects cutting across different economic sectors in Nigeria. Stanbic IBTC Bank’s country-wide branch roll out is also progressing rapidly and the Bank has a growing retail presence in Nigeria.