Nigeria and China Sign $2.4b Currency-Swap to Boost Trade

Nigeria and China agreed on a currency-swap worth $2.4 billion to lift trade and minimize the need to use the dollar in bilateral trade.

In a statement on Thursday, Chinese central bank said, governor of the People’s Bank of China, Yi Gang and his his Nigerian counterpart Mr. Godwin Emefiele, signed a three-year swap of 15 billion yuan or 720 billion naira in Beijing on April 27. The transaction can be renewed if both parties want, it said.

The Central Bank of Nigeria in a separate statement said it will “provide naira liquidity to Chinese businesses and provide renminbi liquidity to Nigerian businesses respectively, thereby improving the speed, convenience and volume of transactions between the two countries,” 

The deal will allow Nigerian companies to import spare parts and raw materials from China by sourcing renminbi from local banks and help them avoid “the difficulties of seeking other scarce foreign currencies,” it said.