Nigeria-China MoU: Powering Local Manufacturing Or Powering Foreign Profit?
By ESTHER McWILLIS-IKHIDE
NIGERIA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China to domesticate key components of its emerging alternative energy transport infrastructure, a deal that the government says could reshape the country’s gas-to-transport and electric mobility ambitions. The agreement between the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas (Pi-CNG) and Chinese firm You Jie Te Environment Technology Ltd (YJT) was signed during a five-day factory inspection tour across Chengdu and Hangzhou, following a five-day working visit led by Pi-CNG Executive Chairman, Ismaeel Ahmed.
The MoU commits both parties to local manufacturing and assembly of CNG dispensers, refuelling stations, and EV charging facilities inside Nigeria—key infrastructure the country currently imports. Beyond hardware, the partnership integrates Internet of Things (IoT) intelligence into Nigeria’s transport energy backbone. YJT’s smart monitoring systems will merge with Pi-CNG’s National Gas Vehicle Monitoring System (NGVMS), allowing real-time tracking of station performance, compliance, equipment reliability, and economic data.
Government messaging has framed the agreement as a turning point. Ahmed said the deal would “ensure Nigerians benefit from cleaner and cheaper transport energy, while driving job creation, skills transfer, service reliability, transparency, and safety across the refuelling value chain.” However, energy policy analysts and industry insiders note that Nigeria has signed similar localisation agreements in the past, only for them to stall at the implementation phase due to poor local supply chains, funding bottlenecks, and regulatory overlap.
A deeper examination shows that the success of the MoU depends on at least four fragile pillars: Nigeria’s capacity to provide uninterrupted power for CNG and EV stations, security stability around energy infrastructure, consistency in industrial policy, and fiscal transparency. While Pi-CNG claims this MoU will not rely on borrowing, questions remain about who will shoulder the capital costs of establishing full production lines locally, especially given Nigeria’s historically weak manufacturing ecosystem and heavy dependence on imported raw materials.
During the visit, Pi-CNG also inspected the factory of Sichuan Witent Technology Co. Ltd, producers of CNG conversion kits. Discussions centred on bringing assembly lines to Nigeria to meet rising domestic demand for vehicle conversion. But industry players caution that unless Nigeria locks in tariff incentives, protects local producers from currency shocks, and seals loopholes that enable import-dependency disguised as “local content,” the MoU risks becoming another pipeline for foreign manufacturers to maintain dominance while only superficially relocating operations.
While the deal reflects Nigeria’s intent to industrialise its alternative energy sector, the real test will not be the signing in China—but the survival of factories, jobs, and compliance systems in Nigeria.
