| Africa with particular reference to Nigeria faces daunting developmental challenges in terms of building and upgrading its infrastructure. Numerous development reports have classified some countries in Africa as fragile, failing and/or failed states. This is due in part to Africa's weak institutions and lack of infrastructure and social amenities that are a requisite for any meaningful development. it is believed that this lack and absence of infrastructure is cutting the growth rate of African economy by as much as one percentage (1%) point every year.Today, Nigeria is bedeviled with these problems. The lack and absence of modern infrastructure in Nigeria as those found in developed countries has been a major challenge and constitutes a chief hindrance to her overall development. Nigeria's infrastructural needs are gigantic. There range from the need for rural and urban roads, railways and harbors, to irrigation systems, telecommunications, clean water, sanitation, energy and such basic social infrastructure as health. The followings are endemic factors inhibiting infrastructure development in Nigeria; a) government's lack of adequate finance to build and manage such infrastructure, b) intrinsic high risks combined with the limited size of the domestic markets have made some of these infrastructural projects unattractive to foreign private investors; c) local investors are too few, too poor, and technically unskilled to undertake such major infrastructure investments in Africa and, d) leadership ineptness and corruption has also played prominent role in that regards. What Nigeria need today to finance and close its infrastructural deficit is estimated to US$100 billion, and also requires the mobilization of both domestic and external finance.For more than four decades, Nigeria's traditional development partners are mainly from Europe and North America (U.S. A. and Canada). These groups of donors have dominated the flow of trade, investment, grants, financial, as well as technical aid to the country over the years. Although, Nigeria and these countries have come a long way in their relationship, it is contestable if such has in any significant way assisted the country in its quest for development. Nonetheless, today, China and a few countries of the South have taken the“bull by the horn”; they are financing a great number of infrastructure projects across Sub-Saharan Africa. The amount of commitments in Africa by these countries rose from less than $1 billion per year before 2004 to $8 billion in 2006 and $5 billion in 2007, signaling a growing trend in cooperation among developing economies (South-South cooperation). Amongst these new players, China is the most visible in the African continent. China has become one of Africa's main sources of investment. At the end of 2005, China had established more than 800 enterprises in Africa involving a total investment of 6 billion dollars. It had signed investment agreements with 28 African countries, while its engineering projects cut across construction, petrochemical, power, however, not neglecting culture, education, health and food processing sectors. It is speculated therefore that, with her experiences, China's growing infrastructure commitments in Africa will help to address the huge infrastructure deficit. How true this is we hope to witness in the long run. However, for a succinct analysis, the study has been divided into five chapters.Chapter one is the introduction of the dissertation, it takes into consideration the background of the study, by deductively perusing China's– Africa aid relations, narrowing it down to the study's main focus (case study) which is the examination of infrastructural development in Nigeria. The chapter tries to situate the research focus in perspective through the research problem, and raises crucial questions that might boost the study, like what is the nature of China - Africa aid relations? What are infrastructure development and the forms of Chinese infrastructural aid/development in Africa? What are the benefits/implications if any of this aid to both China and Nigeria and how is it different from that of the traditional donors (developed countries)? Why does China take akin infrastructural development and other forms of economic relations with Nigeria. How will this infrastructure finance aid given to Nigeria give credence to China's view of itself as a developing country helping as much as it can other developing country through South - South cooperation? Furthermore, the chapter delves on the aims and objective of the study, the significance of the study, the hypothesis, and the methodology of the study - which is essentially ex-post, based on secondary data and sources of information, augmented by limited primary - on-sight visit and interviews with relevant experts, ministries and establishment, as well as discussions with the dissertation supervisor. Chapter two is divided into two parts, encapsulating the literature review and theoretical framework. Further, the review of extant literature is divided into parts; it reviewed materials on the general theme of foreign aid, by conceptualizing and operationalizing the phrase. It also reviews literatures dealing with the Effectiveness of Foreign Aid, and on whether Chinese aid to Africa can be categorize as foreign aid and/or development cooperation? The other parts deal with reviews on China– Africa aid relations and on China's aid flow and infrastructural development in Nigeria (Africa). The chapter also investigated on the appropriate theoretical framework for the study, it made use of South– South dialectics as an emerging framework to give us understanding, explanation, and predictability of the phenomenon under study. Accordingly, South– South dialectics revolves around the postulations that there is a broad vista and huge potential for cooperation among the developing countries, which is an important and indispensable component in both bilateral and multilateral international cooperation. The major reason for this cooperation is the belief that the development of developing countries lies in the developing countries themselves, and in the hands of the people of the developing countries.Chapter three is a discourse on the historical background to China's aid and infrastructural development/finance aid in Africa. It delved into the history of Chinese foreign policy and contemporary China - Africa relations. It argued that China contact with/and interest in Africa date back almost two millennia, While contemporary China -Africa relations is synonymous with the conspicuous anti-imperialist tone of Mao Zedong's ambition that the Peoples Republic of China's (PRC) should strive for the leadership of the third world. Today, China's cooperation with Africa and as a donor date back to the 1950s immediately after the People's Republic was founded in 1949. China's aid to Africa has spanned over five decades. And over those past decades, China has provided Africa with large amount of economic and technical assistance. In terms of China provision of Africa's infrastructural needs/distribution and sectoral focus of Chinese infrastructural development in Africa, The study observed that, using standards indicator of infrastructure development; Africa lags behind other developing regions. And in alleviating Africa of this problem, the Chinese government has emerged as an important source of finance for infrastructure development in Africa, and have maintain a standard of foreign assistance of gift in kind through the construction of specific facilities and the sending of technical teams to manage these sites. In many African countries, the effect of Chinese aid remains perceptible in the form of infrastructures. An emerging trend today, is the increasing importance of China, India and a few Gulf States in the development of Africa's infrastructure. Aggregate finance from them provides a clear indication of their significance. Through 2003, their combined contributions amounted to US$0.6–1.4 billion, with Arab funding in the lead. Volumes rose to US$2 billion in 2004 with the emergence of China, topped US$4 billion in 2005 due to major investments by India, peaked at around US$8 billion in 2006 as a result of China's“Year of Africa”initiative, and tailed back to around US$5 billion in 2007. Chinese infrastructure aid to Africa is in diverse sectors, a large share of the Chinese finance is allocated to power (mainly hydropower) and transport (mainly railroads). Others include; the ICT sector and road, water sector and multi-sector infrastructure projects within the framework of a broad bilateral cooperation agreement that allow resources to be allocated in accordance with the recipient government priorities.Chapter four explores Chinese infrastructural aid to Nigeria, by investigating the vortex of Nigeria– China relations, and noted that the official history of Nigeria relations with China has span over three decades. The enormity of China-Nigeria relation cannot be over-emphasized. The gamut covered includes political, economic (trade, investment, aid, technical), scientific, cultural, education, health and military. Nigeria might be or is the major beneficiary of Chinese infrastructure finance in Africa. Another focus of the chapter was the implication of infrastructural aid/development for Nigeria and China. Though, as the study argues, it is just too early to start the diagnosis of the achievements of China's new strategic partnership with Nigeria with a particular reference on infrastructural finance for development. But nonetheless, justifiably this assessment can only be feasible when China– Nigeria'(Africa's) relations in the last three decades is placed in juxta–position with the relationship between the West and Africa, taking into consideration the colonial, new-colonial and imperialistic relations between them and what the African continent has under-gone in the hands of Western dominance for over a century. Hence, Whether these new strategic partnership with Nigeria in relations to infrastructure finance aid will contribute to Nigeria's sustainable development, will depend on how the both countries administer the finances and supervise projects, and possibly base also on the agreement reached between China and other major stakeholders in Nigeria. Most importantly it will also be based on commitments on the side of Chinese government. However, Nigeria– China relations as it is today, present them with both opportunities and challenges. But the opportunities that will be presented by these relations are copious.Finally, chapter five recommends and wrap up the study. It concludes that, first, unlike the‘unfulfilled promises'of most G8 nations and traditional donors in the year after they committed themselves to doubling aid to Africa, China's record on delivering on its pledges since the Forum on China - Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was founded in 2000 has been commendable. Second, that the growth of Chinese (and other emerging Economies) finance presents itself as an encouraging trend for Nigeria, and can potentially make a material contribution to closing the endemic infrastructural deficit. Third, that China's inroad into Nigeria (Africa) might not overtly be the result of access to resources, even though it might be a latent reason. In that stance, the study also questions what are the impetus directing China's infrastructural aids to poor countries and countries without resources? The answer may lie in the fact that China is today becoming a responsible player within the system of states and the result of the bond China has with other developing countries (within the ambit of South– South cooperation). And finally, there are lessons Nigeria can draw from the Chinese growth experience, while not neglecting the challenges which will need to be addressed by both of them and other development partners alike. |
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