Mr Guo Kun, the Consul General, Consulate of the Peoples Republic of China, says China has invested $7.24 billion  (more than N1 trillion) in Nigeria. Kun disclosed in Lagos that some of the investments went into the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Besides, he said that the investment had helped to create more than 30, 000 jobs for Nigerians.

Lekki Free Trade Zone is a Lagos State project. According to him, the Chinese government provides subsidy, preferential policies in tax and subsidised interest to Chinese companies to encourage them to invest in Nigeria.

“Until now, China has already invested $7.24 billion  and created more than 30, 000 jobs for Nigerians. Among them is the Lekki Fee Trade Zone. If this project becomes successful, Nigeria’s capability of manufacturing various products will be largely enhanced,” Kun said.

The Consul General said that the government had provided policy support to encourage Chinese investors to invest in the Lekki Free Trade zone. He said that both sides realised that the free trade zone was an important project and would do all within their powers to make it a reality.

Kun said that the issue of Chinese substandard products in Nigerian markets was a complicated one that needed to be resolved by both governments and Nigerian importers. According to him, Chinese government has strict laws for quality of export products. He said, however, that greedy businessmen buy from substandard companies, whom they give specifications to reduce the product quality, to make it affordable.

Kun said that Chinese government has always directed its manufacturers willing to export goods to Nigeria to get the SONCAP certificate from the office of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) in China. According to him, most of the reported cases the consulate had investigated showed that there were no signed contracts and that the goods were obtained from unknown small Chinese companies.