The Chinese Consul-General in Lagos, Ms Yan Yuqing, says China–Nigeria bilateral trade exceeded $22.3 billion between January and October 2025. Yuqing disclosed this at the Lagos Forum New Year Media Symposium, where she reviewed bilateral relations and outlined prospects for deeper cooperation in 2026. “Over the past year, China– Nigeria economic and trade cooperation has shown great vitality and strong momentum.

“From January to October 2025, bilateral trade exceeded $22.3 billion, representing a 30.2 per cent year-on-year increase,” Yuqing said. She said Nigeria had remained one of China’s major investment destinations in Africa for many consecutive years.

According to her, Nigeria was honoured as Guest Country of Honour at the ChinaAfrica Economic and Trade Expo in June and the CIIE in November. She said Nigerian products, including cashews, sesame seeds, sorghum and dried ginger, gained increased access to the Chinese market. Yuqing noted that the Lekki and Ogun–Guangdong Free Trade Zones remained key platforms for industrial and manufacturing cooperation. She said development-focused collaboration delivered there will be no problem.

So on the Tax ID. In 2020, effective January 13, 2020, the Finance Act introduced a requirement to put TIN (Tax Indentation Number) into your bank account if you are using it for business or any income like salary. Everybody has started complying since then. “We are repealing all the major tax laws not even one was speared. It does not mean that every single thing in those laws were bad.

This requirement of putting TIN in your business account is one of the things we thought was useful, so we moved it to the new laws. But because the level of tax awareness in Nigeria is very poor, people are finding out so many things for the first time and they just assume that the new tax law is introducing them.

“So this TIN is not new, in fact, what this has done is raise the threshold for reporting your bank account. If everybody starts withdrawing their monies from the banks, the economy will collapse even though it’s not in the law.” “He further said: “Panicking can collapse the tangible benefits, especially in infrastructure, agriculture and the digital economy.

According to her, the projects supported job creation and strengthened local industrial capacity across Nigeria. Yuqing cited the Lekki Deep Sea Port, projecting annual throughput of 520,000 TEUs, representing over 82 per cent year-on-year growth. She added that Lagos– Ibadan Railway and Lagos Light Rail passenger volumes hit record highs, easing congestion.