The Federal Government has signed a $30m grant agreement with China to finance community-based development projects across Nigeria as part of efforts to reduce poverty, improve livelihoods and expand economic opportunities at the grassroots.\n<\/p>\n
The agreement, valued at RMB200m, was signed on Thursday at the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning in Abuja, according to a statement issued by the ministry on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
The ministry stated, \u201cNigeria and China have signed a grant agreement worth RMB200m (approximately $30m) to support community-focused development projects under the Nigeria\u2013China Development Cooperation, reinforcing the two countries\u2019 longstanding strategic partnership.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The grant will finance mutually agreed projects under China\u2019s \u201csmall but beautiful\u201d initiative, which prioritises relatively small-scale interventions designed to deliver direct benefits to local communities.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, said the partnership would \u201csupport Nigeria\u2019s development priorities through targeted investments, knowledge exchange and institutional cooperation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He explained that the ministry was \u201cworking with the Nigeria\u2013China Strategic Partnership Office to develop projects proposed by state governments to address specific community needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bagudu stressed that the priority was to ensure that bilateral agreements produced measurable improvements in people\u2019s living conditions rather than remaining diplomatic commitments.<\/p>\n
The minister also highlighted the Federal Government\u2019s Renewed Hope Ward Development Plan, which seeks to identify economic opportunities and economically active residents across Nigeria\u2019s 8,809 wards.\n<\/p>\n
According to him, the initiative would support targeted development interventions, particularly in underserved communities, while providing opportunities to draw lessons from China\u2019s experience in poverty reduction.\n<\/p>\n
The latest grant follows an earlier $1m contribution from China in 2026 to strengthen Nigeria\u2019s technological and knowledge development capacity.\n<\/p>\n
Bagudu also identified the training of Nigerian officials in China as an important component of bilateral cooperation, saying capacity building would improve the country\u2019s ability to implement development programmes.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking at the ceremony, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, described the agreement as a \u201cdemonstration of China\u2019s commitment to supporting Nigeria\u2019s economic and social development.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He said the grant followed agreements reached between Presidents Bola Tinubu and Xi Jinping during their meeting in China and subsequent bilateral engagements.\n<\/p>\n
Dunhai also disclosed that trade between Nigeria and China reached $18bn in the first half of 2026, while Nigerian exports to China increased by 80 per cent.<\/p>\n
He attributed emerging trade opportunities partly to China\u2019s zero-tariff policy on Nigerian exports, which took effect on May 1, 2026.\n<\/p>\n
The ambassador said the arrangement could improve market access for Nigerian products, attract investment and encourage domestic processing and industrial development.\n<\/p>\n
However, he warned that the current zero-tariff arrangement was scheduled to expire on May 1, 2028, urging both countries to pursue a longer-term economic development partnership agreement.\n<\/p>\n
He called on the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to advance discussions on the proposed framework.\n<\/p>\n
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Deborah Odoh, welcomed the grant and commended the institutions involved in concluding the agreement.\n<\/p>\n
The ministry pledged to work with Chinese authorities and relevant Nigerian institutions to ensure transparent and efficient implementation of the projects.\n<\/p>\n
The agreement comes as Nigeria and China mark 55 years of diplomatic relations in 2026, with both countries seeking to deepen cooperation in trade, investment and grassroots development.<\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
The Federal Government has signed a $30m grant agreement with China to finance community-based development projects across Nigeria as part of efforts to reduce poverty, improve livelihoods and expand economic… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}