Nigeria's central bank wants money to flow both ways with China
In Beijing, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso asked China's biggest bank to help fix payment bottlenecks and invest in naira assets.
Beijing — Nigeria pays China far more for trade than it receives back in export earnings and investment. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Olayemi Cardoso took that imbalance to Beijing this week, setting out an agenda for deeper financial links with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), according to a CBN statement carried by Premium Times.
What Cardoso asked for
- Efficient payment and settlement arrangements, and better use of the bilateral mechanisms that already exist.
- Practical obstacles to be identified and removed, with teams named on both sides to push cooperation forward, including on regulatory barriers where needed.
- Cooperation judged by the trade and investment it actually produces, not by agreements on paper.
- More foreign investment in naira-denominated instruments.
He said the aim is not only to make transactions easier but to create the conditions for more trade, more investment and stronger financial flows in both directions.
Where it happened
Cardoso met ICBC's chairman and senior managers and spoke at a Nigeria–China Cross-Border Finance Roundtable on trade settlement, payments, treasury, trade finance and investment.
The case for Nigeria
Cardoso said reforms over the past three years have made Nigeria a more predictable place to invest, and that the priority now is to turn that stability into deeper markets and growth. He argued that ICBC's reach could connect Chinese institutions with Nigerian opportunities. No deals or figures were announced.
Source: CBN statement via Premium Times, 22 October 2026.
