Africa should tap from BRI to build and upgrade their digital economy: Nigerian scholar

Poster showed the theme "Partnering with China to Build Africa's Digital Economy" of the 2022 Africa-China Economic Partnership Agenda Conference (ACEPAC) held on Sept. 30, 2022.

Africa should tap from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to build and upgrade their digital economy, said Efem Ubi, Director of Research, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) at the 2022 Africa-China Economic Partnership Agenda Conference (ACEPAC) on Friday.

Held both online and offline, the conference highlighted the theme of "Partnering with China to Build Africa's Digital Economy", attracting renowned scholars from China and Africa to share their insights.

Chu Maoming, Consul General of the Chinese Consulate in Nigeria, addressed the conference, saying that digital economy has grown rapidly in recent years in China and Nigeria, playing a larger role in the two sides' national economy.

Photo shows that Chu Maoming, Consul General of the Chinese Consulate in Nigeria addressed the conference (Photo from Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Lagos).

He added that China has offered strong support in Nigeria's digital economy development, especially in fields of infrastructure construction, digital payment and e-commerce platform. Going forward, China is willing to join hands with Nigeria to implement the fruitful results achieved at the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

After the keynote speech of Chu, scholars from China and Africa shared their research results.

Yan Yan, professor at School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University, shared her research on how the rapid development of the digital economy has contributed to the eradication of poverty in China.

Efem Ubi said that Africa's digital economy is expected to reach a market size of 712 billion dollars by 2050. Analyzing traditional restrictions faced by the continent, such as logistics challenge, low Internet penetration etc., he proposed that Africa should tap from the BRI to build and upgrade their digital economy.

Misty Uba, Chief Operation Officer (COO) of an engineering consulting firm, hailed concrete actions of China in expanding telecom services in Africa, as Chinese companies are offering more cost-effective equipment and solutions.

He Wenping with China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) eyed on the cooperation between China and Africa in the post-COVID-19 era and why it needs to be further consolidated in so many more areas than before.

Zhong Xin, professor at School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University focused 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.

Chinese enterprises in Africa, including digital TV company Star Times and smartphone maker Tecno, also attended the event.

The event was organized by the Afri-China Media Center, the NIIA and China's Renmin University.