Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Olayemi Cardoso urged closer payment links with China to support trade and investment, Premium Times reported Oct. 22, citing talks in Beijing.
The outlet said Cardoso met the chairman and senior management of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). At a Nigeria-China Cross-Border Finance Roundtable, participants discussed payment efficiency and settlement arrangements. Premium Times described operating constraints along the two-country corridor and mentioned practitioners in cross-border transactions, treasury, trade finance and investment.
Cardoso proposed identifying priorities and designating teams to advance cooperation, according to the outlet. Work on regulatory and institutional barriers could be taken up where appropriate. The report named no teams or timetable and described no new payment channel or agreement.
“Our ambition is not simply to make financial transactions between Nigeria and China easier,” Cardoso said, as quoted by Premium Times. The outlet cited CBN data to describe substantial trade payments from Nigeria to China, while export earnings and investment entering Nigeria were comparatively modest.
The CBN’s 2019 review records that Nigeria and China signed a three-year currency swap on April 27, 2018, with amounts of 15 billion yuan and 720 billion naira. The CBN said the swap was designed to make funds available for trade between Nigerian and Chinese businesses. A CBN newsletter published in July 2025 later referred to the agreement’s renewal as supporting local-currency settlement.
