Nigerian businessman, Professor Gregory Ibe has raised the alarm that Nigeria-China trade and by extension, Africa is going through serious strain due to hiked shipping cost.
He alerted that his concern is the damage this development has started doing to the trade relations between Nigeria and China as businesses from Nigerians meant for China have started diverting to some other countries.
Ibe spoke with the ACE and noted that the matter got worse since the international travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
He said higher than international shipping charges, the cost of shipping 20ft container of goods from China costs about $7,400 when from other countries, the rate is not more than $5,000. Also, while it takes some $9,800 to transport 40ft container to Nigeria, it costs about $14,200 to ship from China.
According to him, since many business people place their orders for goods and rely on their business partners in China to ship them after the charges are paid, many of such goods get dumped after production.
He called on the Nigerian and Chinese authorities to intervene and stop the barrier that is seriously hurting China-Africa trade that has been the most robust with Africa in the last 12 years.
However, the Chinese Consulate in Lagos told ACE it was not aware of such development since no such complaint was ever brought to its attention by any Nigerian businessman.
The Consul General, Mr. Chu Maoming however assured that the Chinese government and the Consulate representing China’s business interests in Nigeria would do everything possible to ensure that the trade and economic relations of Nigeria and China built over the years on mutual benefits is not hurt.