By Henry Umahi
It was a day of exchange of robust ideas by eggheads in various fields united by the desire for their countries to hug prosperity. That day, experts from Nigeria and China discussed digital economy cooperation between the two countries and Africa at large. The beauty of technology was also on full display as participants at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos, and professors from Renmin University and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing interacted seamlessly.
A special message to welcome the audience was delivered by the director-general of the NIIA, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, who said the Institute was proud to host because of the importance of the conference. He said it was a “continuation of what we have been doing,” adding that digital economy “is the opposite of regular economy.”
Osaghae, who said that digital economy is the face of the world, explained that it has different elements, including e-commerce and e-currency (cryptocurrency).
Saying that “we shall expand the scope of our digital economy,” he explained that Nigeria and China have trajectories that are comparable. Osaghae talked about infrastructure renewal, adding that they will continue to do citizen-driven policies and person-to-person diplomacy.
He explained Nigeria’s readiness to embrace at a larger scale the possibilities the digital economy presents, and noted that the Institute has played key role in policy formulation for the government and assured that from the enabling laws, Nigeria is ready.
He also itemised the gains of the digital economy sector in even the projects and businesses of the Institute which has enabled it to handle more manpower development, training and conferences more than ever before,
He appreciated the Afri-China Media Centre (ACMC), the initiator of the project and Renmin University, the Chinese partner for the very important idea of the conference.
He tasked Nigeria and even the private sector and the younger generation on the need to develop more and quality manpower to run the sector.
In his opening speech, the Chinese Consul General in Lagos, Mr. Chu Maoming, took the opportunity to talk about the existing digital economy cooperation between the two countries.
He started by defining digital economy as “a new economic form that takes data resources as the key element, modern information networks as the main carrier. It’s the main economic form after the agricultural and industrial economies.”
According to him, since the mid-1990s, China has had a history of about 30 years of digital economy development and has accumulated a lot of experience and achievements. He noted that similarly, there is plenty of evidence that Nigeria has strong potential to develop digital economies.
Maoming said: “According to data from Nigerian Communications Commission, the number of mobile internet users in Nigeria has exceeded 150 million as of June 2022, with an internet penetration rate of nearly 70%; 3G and 4G network coverage is on the rise. 5G network application is starting to take off.
“In October 2021, Nigeria officially unveiled its central bank digital currency E-Naira, becoming the first country in Africa to issue a CBDC. The issuance of E-Naira is believed to help facilitate cross-border trade, enhance financial inclusion and improve the efficiency of financial policy, thus promoting national economic development.
“Nowadays, China and Nigeria are the largest economies respectively in Asia and Africa, and both countries are actively developing their digital economies with notable success. According to a report recently released by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, China’s digital economy reaches approximately 6.7 trillion USD in 2021, accounting for almost 40% of GDP. Data from the Nigerian NBS also shows that the ICT sector contributed almost 18% to Nigeria’s GDP growth in the second quarter of 2021, second only to agriculture.”
The Consul General remarked that in the past few years, Chinese companies have been involved in developing Nigeria’s digital economy in various fields. He said cooperation between the two countries is focused on three main areas: the construction of 5G network, mobile payment sector and e-commerce platform design.
He mentioned some Chinese companies participating in Nigeria’s digital economy as well as providing consumers with a wide range of services, including mobile payments and transfers.
Maintaining that “with more Chinese capital and technology invested in Nigeria’s mobile payment sector, it is believed that Nigeria’s digital economy will have better and faster developments,” he added that a report issued in June “shows that in Nigeria, more than 600 thousand small retailers, essentially consisting of small kiosks and open-air markets, account for 97% of national sales.
“China has a number of e-commerce giants that promote retail development. Now Egatee, a Chinese e-commerce start-up, is determined to consolidate main actors in the retail market in Nigeria, and to provide cross-border logistics, online payment and settlement and other whole process services. There is a huge consumer market in Nigeria and we believe China’s experience can provide a reference for Nigeria’s e-commerce development.
“On November 29, 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. In that speech, President Xi made four proposals, one of which is deepening practical cooperation between China and Africa, including strengthening cooperation on digital economy. President Xi then pointed out the nine programs that China would implement, in close cooperation with African countries. The fifth is digital innovation program, with the expectation of working with African countries to expand Silk Road e-commerce cooperation, hold online shopping festivals and tourism e-commerce promotion activities, and so on. This shows the importance China attaches to its partnership to build digital economy in Africa, including Nigeria, at the highest levels of Chinese policy-making.”
“Nigeria is one of the most important economies in Africa and Lagos is the economic, financial and technological center of Nigeria. As Chinese Consul General in Lagos, I am delighted to be a witness to the expanding and deepening cooperation between China and Nigeria in the field of digital economy. I also hold such belief that, if only our two peoples continue to work together, cooperation in digital economy between our two countries will have a brighter future than ever and will bear more fruits. Let’s join hands and work together.”
Five experts presented papers, all related to the Digital Economy of China and Africa. They are Dr. Efem Ubi, Director of Research, NIIA; Mr. Misty Uba, COO of an engineering consulting firm; Prof. He Wenping, China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS); Prof. Zhong Xin, School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University, Beijing and Prof. Yan Yan, School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University, Beijing
Three of the papers by Ubi, Uba, and Yan were completely and purely on the digital economy and its important roles. The first two addressed how the way it today affects Africa and also how we can bring an improvement.
Prof Zhong did a focus on how the media cooperation between China and Nigeria on the framework of the FOCAC has contributed to the deepening of China and Africa’s friendship.
She took it further that the conference itself that deepened the friednship via digital economy ageda setting is an outcome of th cooperation as the brain behind the ACMC is an alumnus of the media exchange.
She looked at the cooperation between China and Africa in the post-Covid era and why it needs to be further consolidated in so many more areas than before. She aligned with the need to further such good cooperation to fight the pandemic in the digital economy sector. Her paper was important to the extent that it is only when humanity s saved from a scourge such as the pandemic that they would discuss any other issues.
Prof. Yan Yan examined how the rapid development of the digital economy has contributed to the eradication of poverty in China. Through digital enablers, places that used to be inaccessible to modern development have been captured and made better. She x-rayed how the income of rural people has improved through the digital economy advancement; how the left-behind kids’ syndrome has abated as young parents who used to travel to the cities to work and make a living, leaving their kids with grandparents, have been curbed and most of such parents now stay with their kids within the rural areas that were hitherto inaccessible and make a good living. Those old parents of theirs who were burdened with the care of their grandkids are rather catered for by their working children. The standard of living has improved and China is a happier society with such development that has created a lot of jobs and new industries. Rural-urban migration has been drastically mitigated.
She narrated how the hitherto inaccessible rural places of Chinese have been lifted from hardship and poverty deploying the digital economy possibilities. There are locations in China where drones are deployed to delive mails, drugs, foods and other essential items and also pick up agicultural produce.
Through the deployment of digital economy, places and rural areas in Guizhou have hit prosperity and bouyant economy.
For instance, in Xiuwen, a town some hour away from Guiyang, the people have recreated kiwifruit farming into a billionaire business of e-farming. Their cooperative unions plants hundreds of acfres of kiwi orchards on the mountains. The farms are intergrated and monitored from a central ICT hub in downtown Xiuwen. That deployment of big data has recreated the rural people’s world of poievrty into affluence.
Ubi and Uba, the two Nigerian experts, took a look at the extent of the digital economy or market in Nigeria and Africa, how far China has been part of it and how better that can be.
The papers went into detail about the extent of the Chinese digital market, the largest in the world, and how their digital hardware availability in Africa has aided the development of the sector in the continent.
They assessed ways and areas where further development can take place and what benefits those would bring to the African market and further help to strengthen the Africa-China friendship on the FOCAC and BRI platforms.
They also called on Chinese and Nigerian policymakers, investors, business people and the rest to work more to synergise efforts at growing the Nigerian end of the digital economy and bridge the digital divide.
They were detailed on the readiness of Nigeria, especially to embrace a deepening of the sector, assuring future Chinese investors in the sector that Nigeria has put policies and regulations in place, hands the youthful population enthusiastic of learning the new ways and have also been creatively churning out startup firms in the sector to tap into the possibilities the vast sector provides.
Also in attendance were many players in the sector from China whose businesses help power the growth of the digital economy in Nigeria and Africa. They include StarTimes, the digital TV company that championed the migration of African TV services to the digital platform. StarTimes facilitated that in so many countries, including Nigeria.
Executive Director of Afri-China Media, Ikenna Emewu, described the conference as a landmark that would signal the deepening of the Nigerian digital economy sector.
Emewu said the effort would complement Nigeria’s Digital Economy Policy of 2019 and help chart a course for the country in this all-important sector that has revolutionised the global economy.
The journalist noted that Nigeria and Africa cannot afford to lag behind in adopting their economies to the digital possibilities that have been revolitionising the way the world operates and would always do.
Emewu, who is the publisher of Africa China Economy Magazine,
said that digitization has taken over the world in all aspects and way back in Africa, Nigerian young start-up ICT hotheads have led the way in the continent.
“In Africa, Nigeria has almost half of all young people who have made commendable marks in the digital rave and they have been doing so great. This summit would challenge Nigeria and Africa to do more in this aspect. We have been merely consumers of the products of this sector and hardly manufacturers and we need to takle steps to change the narrative.
“That is why we need China’s partnership because China knows the way in all aspects. They first rolled out the 5G telephone technology. They are into big data, cloud computing, manufacture of hardware, fibreoptic cable laying, artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and general interconnectivity with the world, including Africa.
“It is China that made smartphones, a core component of the digital economy hardware, affordable in Africa where over 84 percent of the digital economy access through the internet is by mobile gadgets.
That is why we have Chinese experts and operators in the sector to discuss with and share ideas and we hope this conference would lay the foundation for growth in the sector.
“We have also invited the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to participate and possibly share ideas on what Nigeria is doing policywise.”