By Victor Liman

The recently signed Nigeria-China Aquatic Products Protocol represents a significant development in Nigeria-China relations and a practical demonstration of what a properly structured strategic partnership can deliver.

More than an agreement on fish and other aquatic products, the Protocol creates a platform for expanding trade, attracting investment, developing aquaculture, transferring technology, creating employment and strengthening Nigeria’s emerging Blue Economy.

Most importantly, it provides tariff-free market access for eligible Nigerian aquatic products into the Chinese market, one of the world’s largest seafood markets.

The opportunity should not, however, be regarded as an end in itself. It should serve as a catalyst for transforming Nigeria’s fragmented aquatic-products sector into an integrated, commercially viable and export-oriented industry.

The Protocol must therefore, be understood within the broader context of the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership Office (NCSP), conceived as an institutional mechanism for moving relations beyond conventional diplomacy and trade towards structured cooperation in investment, infrastructure, industrialisation, energy, technology, agriculture, science and human-capital development.

Nigeria and China possess complementary economic strengths. China has enormous market depth, investment capacity, technological capability, manufacturing expertise, infrastructure experience and sophisticated value-chain systems, while Nigeria possesses substantial aquatic resources, entrepreneurial capacity, agricultural potential, a large domestic market and a strategic position within Africa and ECOWAS.

Bilateral relations should increasingly be judged not merely by diplomatic engagements and agreements, but by their capacity to generate investment, productive capacity, jobs, exports, technology transfer, infrastructure and measurable improvements in the Nigerian economy.

In this context, President Bola Tinubu’s initiative in establishing the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership framework represents an important investment in the architecture of long-term bilateral economic cooperation.

The choice of Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, the pioneer Director General of the NCSP and now Honourable Minister of Power, was consequential in establishing an institutional platform through which strategic opportunities could be identified, pursued and translated into practical cooperation.

The emergence of the Aquatic Products Protocol provides a powerful example of the potential value of this approach.

Tegbe’s resilience, persistence and strategic relationship-building are particularly relevant to this evolution.

His trajectory from pioneering the NCSP to serving as Minister of Power illustrates the importance of institutional continuity and sustained engagement in building strategic partnerships capable of delivering tangible outcomes.

The Protocol should not be viewed simply as an arrangement for exporting fish to China.

Itss strategic significance lies in its potential to establish a Nigeria-China aquatic-products value chain covering production, technology, processing, certification, logistics, investment, marketing and export.

The strategic question is therefore no longer simply how much aquatic product Nigeria can export to China, but how tariff-free access can transform the entire aquatic-products ecosystem, from fish farming, hatcheries, fingerling production and feed manufacturing to processing, packaging, cold storage, laboratories, certification, refrigerated transportation, digital traceability, finance, insurance, branding and logistics.

The potential benefits are substantial. The Protocol can diversify Nigeria’s exports, generate foreign exchange, stimulate aquaculture expansion and attract investment into farms, hatcheries, feed mills, processing plants and cold-chain infrastructure.

It can also encourage higher-value exports, with processed, packaged, branded and value-added products creating greater economic returns and employment.

But a tariff-free market is valuable only if Nigeria has sufficient production capacity to supply it. The country must move deliberately from small-scale production to commercial and industrial production, and ultimately to export-oriented production.

This requires an integrated chain linking hatcheries, fingerlings, feed, farms, aggregation, processing, cold chain, certification, packaging, logistics and export.

Specialised Aquatic Industrial Development Zones or clusters could concentrate production, processing, laboratories, storage and export services, attract domestic and Chinese investment, create economies of scale and connect smaller producers to larger processors and exporters.

Nigeria should also pursue a dual-market model: domestic market plus Chinese and other international markets. Expanded production can improve food security, reduce dependence on imported fish, create rural employment and strengthen local economies, while export-oriented production can generate foreign exchange and incentivise higher standards.

Because aquatic products are perishable, market access must be matched by investment in cold rooms, ice-making facilities, refrigerated trucks, modern processing plants, laboratories, quarantine facilities, ports, reliable electricity, digital traceability and integrated logistics.

This is where the broader Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership becomes particularly important.

Trade policy must connect with industrial policy; industrial policy with infrastructure; infrastructure with energy; energy with investment; investment with technology; and technology with skills and markets.

The Protocol also provides an opportunity to strengthen Nigeria’s quality infrastructure through better laboratory capacity, disease surveillance, sanitary certification, inspection systems, farm registration, approved processing facilities, digital certification, traceability, packaging and quality assurance.

Meeting demanding Chinese requirements can strengthen Nigeria’s credentials for accessing other international markets.

Nigeria should equally seek Chinese investment in aquaculture technology, hatcheries, genetics, feed processing, refrigeration, logistics, digital traceability, packaging, research and financing.

The objective should not merely be to export Nigerian fish to China, but to encourage Chinese companies to invest and produce with Nigerian partners in Nigeria, a model combining Chinese technology and investment with Nigerian resources, labour, production and processing, and access to the Chinese market.

The implementation of the Protocol should focus on market access; sanitary, phytosanitary and biosecurity requirements; standards and certification; industrialisation; investment and technology; and environmental sustainability.

These pillars can transform the Protocol from a market-access instrument into an industrial-development programme.

The message after the signing is straightforward: Nigeria must produce. Existing farms must become more productive, hatcheries and fingerling quality must improve, feed production must expand, modern technologies must be adopted, post-harvest losses reduced and processing capacity expanded.

This will require Federal and State Governments, private investors, farmers, financial institutions, Chinese companies, development-finance institutions, research institutions, universities, technology providers, logistics companies, processors, exporters, certification agencies and farmer associations to work together.

The opportunity extends beyond Nigeria’s domestic market as the country could potentially become a regional processing and distribution hub for aquatic products destined for Asian markets, strengthening its position as an economic hub and deepening practical ECOWAS value-chain development.

The most important lesson is that bilateral relations become meaningful when they create tangible opportunities for citizens.

Nigeria-China relations should increasingly be assessed in terms of jobs created, investments mobilised, factories established, infrastructure delivered, technologies transferred, exports increased, enterprises developed, skills acquired and value chains created.

The Aquatic Products Protocol provides an important validation of the strategic logic behind the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership Office and the vision that informed its establishment.

The role of Joseph Tegbe, as its pioneer Director General, deserves particular recognition for helping build the institutional foundation for a deeper and more practical relationship with China.

His subsequent appointment as Honourable Minister of Power adds another dimension to the strategic narrative, given the critical role reliable electricity will play in developing aquaculture, processing and cold-chain infrastructure.

The Protocol should now be followed by a deliberate implementation programme identifying high-potential products, mapping production capacity, establishing export-oriented clusters, strengthening laboratories and certification, expanding hatcheries and feed production, developing cold-chain infrastructure, attracting Chinese technology and investment, improving aggregation and traceability, developing Nigerian brands, reducing post-harvest losses and setting measurable production and export targets.

The Nigeria-China Aquatic Products Protocol is potentially much larger than the commodity it covers. Its significance lies in what Nigeria does with the opportunity created by tariff-free access to the Chinese market.

It can help diversify exports, generate foreign exchange, expand aquaculture, create jobs, attract investment, transfer technology, improve standards, develop infrastructure, strengthen food security and advance the Blue Economy in line with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, But these benefits will not materialise automatically.

The Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership should therefore enter a new phase, from diplomacy to delivery; from agreements to implementation; from market access to production; from production to industrialisation; and from bilateral friendship to mutually beneficial economic transformation. The Aquatic Products Protocol has opened an important door. Nigeria’s task now is to walk through it.

Victor Liman, a Diplomatic Trade Expert and former Chief trade negotiator/DG, Nigerian Office for trade negotiations wrote in from Abuja