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China Turns To Nigeria, Other Emerging Economies As US Markets Freeze
This illustration photograph shows a screen displaying a stock market index graphs and the word “Tariffs” written in the colours of the US flag, in Paris on April 4, 2025. Markets extended a global selloff on April 4, 2025 as countries around the world reeled from US President’s trade war, but the White House insisted the American economy will emerge victorious. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)
Product manufacturers in China have turned their attention to Nigeria and other emerging markets following the imposition of trade tariffs on their products by the US President, Donald Trump.
Trump, on April 2, slapped a 46% tariff on Vietnam and a 17% levy on the Philippines before paring those back to 10% for the next three months as he begins bilateral negotiations on trade with about 75 different countries.
Manufacturers say that after Washington raised tariffs on Chinese goods by 145%, U.S. orders for products have vanished.
“It’s a matter of life and death because 60-70% of our business is with American clients,” marketing manager of Conmo Electronic Co, Candice Li SAID in a survey obtained by Channels Television on Tuesday, adding,g “Goods cannot be exported and money cannot be collected. This is very severe.”
Most exporters Reuters spoke with said U.S. orders have either been delayed or stopped coming – a bad sign for the world’s second-largest economy, whose growth last year relied heavily on running a trillion-dollar trade surplus.
Kobe Huang, sales representative at Shenzhen Landun Environmental Technology, which makes water filters and smart toilets, says that for now, European sales are up, but the U.S. market is “frozen.”
U.S. customers and distributors haven’t cancelled orders, he said. “They have asked us to hold on. We are holding on.”
No other country comes close to matching China’s sales of more than $400 billion in goods to the U.S. each year.
And while Trump’s tariffs on the rest of the world are much lower, they are likely to curb global demand in coming months – and implicitly, the appetite for Chinese goods in other countries.
Despite the tariffs on China, exports from China to other countries, including to Nigeria, have surged.
A poll by AFP said China is expected to post first-quarter growth of around five percent on Wednesday, buoyed by exports.
Analysts polled by AFP forecast the world’s number two economy to have grown 5.1 percent from January to March.
Figures released Monday showed Beijing’s exports soared more than 12 percent on-year in March, smashing expectations, with analysts attributing it to a “frontloading” of orders ahead of Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2.
Many exporters said they have been either diversifying their production bases outside China, or the markets they sell to, away from the United States.
Henry Han, sales manager at Apexto Electronics Co, which makes SSD and micro SD flash drives, says the U.S. market only accounts for 10% of direct sales, down from 30% before the pandemic. Many of their customers now take shipments of components for final assembly in a third country to avoid the tariffs.
Sales manager David Du, from speaker maker Zealot, said an order from Skechers for 30,000 speakers to be distributed to their U.S. stores was put on hold after Trump’s tariffs. But he said he can rely on other markets.
Zealot got a big and unexpected break in 2015, when an all-in-one speaker, power bank and emergency flashlight became a hit in Nigeria.
He added that its market in Nigeria is now twice as big as the U.S., accounting for 40% of total sales and taking in 45 containers monthly.
“We are as big as JBL” in Nigeria, Du said, referring to the Californian audio equipment brand.
China’s exports to Nigeria are diverse and significant, with a focus on manufactured goods, particularly electrical and electronic equipment, machinery, and vehicles. In 2023, these top exports included electrical and electronic equipment ($2.88B), machinery, nuclear reactors, and boilers ($2.13B), and vehicles (other than railway or tramway) ($1.34B).
The bilateral trade between Nigeria and China reached an all-time high of $15.1 billion (about N25.7 trillion) between January and September 2024, with China’s imports from Nigeria increasing by 36.1 per cent year-on-year.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said it has intercepted 589 bags of Canadian Loud, a strong strain of cannabis, worth N1,042,500,000 only in street value in a Lagos hotel.
It said the illicit drug, with a total weight of 417.3 kilograms, was seized during an operation in the 80-room hotel in Victoria Island, which it said was used as cover for distributing illicit substances.
It disclosed that no fewer than three were arrested in the course of the operation at the five-storey hotel building between Friday April 25 and Saturday April 26, 2025, while two other suspects were currently at large.
The NDLEA, in a statement by its Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, explained that the items suspected to be proceeds of illicit drug trade recovered from the hotel included a Toyota Prado Landcruiser SUV, Toyota Sienna, Volkswagen Delivery Van, Kia Ceranto, Grand Caravan Dodge, 74 new TV sets, 10 used TV sets, and 13 refrigerators, among others.
It further disclosed that the agency intercepted over two million pills of tramadol in Kano and Jigawa states.
The NDLEA explained that its operatives, acting on intelligence, on April 23 seized consignments of opioids being moved from Kano to the Niger Republic and Yobe State, through Jigawa.
It noted that the psychoactive substances were being moved in a Toyota Sienna vehicle at about 2:30 am along Kano- Ringim Road, Gumel town, when anti-narcotic officers on patrol intercepted them and arrested two suspects.
Recovered from the Sienna vehicle were 200,000 pills of 250mg of tramadol and 217,500 capsules of pregabalin.
“A swift follow up operation in Kano led to the arrest of the supplier at his residence located at Mil Tara, Layin Technical area of Kano, while additional 1,584,000 pills of 250mg of tramadol stacked inside a Nissan 18-seater bus and a room in his house were discovered and evacuated.
“This brings the total number of the recovered opioids to 2,001,500 pills,” the statement read in part.
According to the statement, another shipment of 46 wraps of cocaine weighing 547 grams hidden in body cream bound for the Middle East country, was intercepted at a courier firm in Lagos on April 23.
It said the seizure came barely a week after NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) uncovered 20 parcels of cocaine concealed inside religious books bound for Saudi Arabia at a logistics company in Lagos.
It also said another consignment intercepted the same day included 1.8kg pentazocine injection and 60 grams bromazepam tablets heading for Canada.
Babafemi, in the statement, further disclosed that three Ghanaian ladies were on arrested on April 20 at the Gbaji checkpoint, at the Seme border area of Badagry, Lagos, by NDLEA operatives while attempting to smuggle 4.8kilograms of Ghana Loud, a strong strain of cannabis into Nigeria.
“While commending the officers and men of DOGI, Lagos, Kano, Jigawa, Edo and Seme commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.) equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for ensuring a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts,” he added.
Jesutega Onokpasa, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says President Bola Tinubu has “failed woefully” based on the performance of his administration.
Speaking in an interview with Arise Television on Sunday, Onokpasa warned that Tinubu may end up being a one-term president if he did not improve in his performance.
Onokpasa also wondered why Sheriff Oborevwori, governor of Delta, who he referred to as his cousin, defected to the APC.
The APC chieftain said the governor’s defection to the ruling party does not add any value to the APC or the state.
Onokpasa added that the ruling party should not focus on the defection of opposition politicians into its fold but on good governance.
He said the defections of opposition leaders to the APC negate the principles of democracy.
“It is not a question of people defecting to our party. It is a question of are we ruling well? In that sense, we failed woefully,” he said.
“President Bola Tinubu has failed woefully to rule well, provide food for Nigerians, and give succour in these hard times.
“Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, who recently defected to our party, is actually my cousin. I don’t have the slightest idea why he defected to our party. He did not inform me. I wish him well.
“I don’t think it has value to him, our party, or Delta state.
“The whole idea of packing people into our party—that is not democracy. The interesting thing is that you must always have opposition because people must disagree. The idea of a one-party state is simply unattainable.
“There must be disagreement. Even in our party, we disagree.
“I can tell you for free that at the rate we are going, all these things (defections) won’t help us in 2027. If we are not careful, Bola Tinubu will end up as a one-term president. Quote me anywhere.”
The Nigerian Army has explained why civilians cannot use military uniforms in whatever guise.
It said wearing military uniforms is a crime, which could attract jail terms.
Army’s Chief of Civil-Military Affairs (CCMA), Major.-Gen. Gold Chibuisi, made the clarification on Saturday night during a media chat with Defence correspondents in Abuja.
The CCMA noted that respecting the uniform is an important part of strengthening national security and building trust between the military and the public.
Gen. Chibuisi said the misuse of military attire by unauthorized persons not only violates the law but also aids criminal activities.
He said: “I am a bit surprised that most briefs we give in our programmes, we always talk about this issue of uniform because it keeps recurring.
“It is against the law of the land. If you are not in the armed forces or the security agencies, to use their uniform — whether you love it or not — is a crime.
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“If you like the military, join the military. “Don’t wear our uniform if you are not one of us.”
The CCMA stressed that the law must be respected to maintain the integrity and safety of the Armed Forces.
Highlighting the security risks, Chibuisi noted that criminals increasingly exploit military uniforms to commit crimes, making it harder for civilians and security agencies to identify genuine soldiers.
“Currently, there are a lot of criminals using military garb to perpetrate crime,” he said. “If people keep dressing like that, how do you differentiate between a criminal and a genuine soldier?”
Gen. Chibuisi explained that soldiers are trained to arrest civilians caught wearing military gear and hand them over to the police for prosecution.
“All these other things that come with it — harassment or rough handling those caught— are not right. And we are doing sensitization on them. The soldiers that we get evidence against, we always sanction them sternly,” he said.