Nigerian and Chinese business leaders have pledged to deepen bilateral trade and investment relations through expanded collaboration in exports, frontier artificial intelligence, healthcare, energy infrastructure, agriculture and industrialisation following the Nigeria-China Investment Summit 2026 held in Lagos.
The summit, organised by the Nigeria-China Investment Club under the theme, ‘Building Strategic Partnerships for Investment, Industrialisation, Job Creation, and Sustainable Economic Growth Between Nigeria and China,’ brought together government-backed Chinese investment organisations and Nigerian private sector stakeholders to explore new investment opportunities.
Speaking at the summit, President of the Nigeria-China Investment Club, Dr Chidi Uleli, said the partnership between the NCIC and the China International Business Development Committee would drive private sector-led investments into critical sectors of the Nigerian economy.
According to Uleli, the Chinese organisation is backed by the Chinese government and has over 40 million members, including more than 200 billionaire entrepreneurs and investors with interests in infrastructure, agriculture, digital payment systems, healthcare, energy and renewable energy.
“They are not marketers, they are not traders, they are not people that just want to come and sell things to Nigerians. They are interested, through the backing of their government, in seeing how private sector-led engagements between the government of China and the people of Nigeria can lead to development in these sectors. Because once these sectors are developed, the country can develop,” Uleli said.
He said the summit was designed to move beyond discussions by creating measurable partnerships and tracking investment commitments.
“One of the things that made us go to this summit is that we want to move from words to action. By the time you are through with this summit today, there are three levels of engagement. There is an engagement with the people, businesses and individuals. There is an engagement with governments. There is an engagement for everybody. Because it is private sector-led, there is not going to be bureaucracy. Once we onboard you, you immediately begin to get benefits in trade and cross-country commerce,” Uleli said.
He added that the summit would facilitate investments in infrastructure, agriculture, digital payments and energy while opening Nigerian businesses to the vast Chinese consumer market.
“If 0.001 per cent of Chinese begin to buy something from one local government alone, their budget will increase more than that of the state. You will hear things about infrastructure, agriculture, digital payments and energy. We are ready to move from words to action,” Uleli said.
During his presentation, Uleli said the collaboration aimed to accelerate Nigeria’s industrial development and improve livelihoods through targeted investments.
“We have followed a mission to develop the economy of Nigeria, to materialise civilisation, to better the living conditions of the local people and improve the economy. We have to pay attention to the most urgent sectors first. We came to Nigeria to let local people have their own industries and businesses so Nigeria will never depend on any other country,” Uleli said.
On her part, Executive Chairman of the China Association for International Economic Cooperation, Sarah Lee, said Nigeria remained one of Africa’s most promising investment destinations and pledged that Chinese investors would support local industrial development across several sectors.
“In our opinion, Nigeria is a very promising country, and we love Nigeria very much. We organised a delegation covering different industries to Nigeria so they can understand the country’s development opportunities. With the CIBDC foundation, we will create opportunities for Nigerian people to establish local industries in agriculture, infrastructure, healthcare, construction, renewable energy, hospitals and education,” Lee said.
