Since the early 2000s, the relationship between China and Nigeria has emerged as a subject of significant scholarly and public discourse, primarily due to China’s increasing efforts to consolidate its economic influence and market dominance within Nigeria. Scholars and commentators have expressed various opinions on the issue, some view the relationship as beneficial to China and detrimental to the overall development of Nigeria, others see it as the opportunity that Nigeria needs to develop and compete in the world market.

This study adopted the dependency theory as its theoretical framework and made use of secondary sources of data collection from textbooks, journals, newspapers, magazines, government publications, internet materials, and other relevant works related to the study. The study revealed that Nigeria – China bilateral relations have benefited China more than Nigeria. This according to the study is evident in the fact that the balance of trade has remained in favour of China beginning from the era of informal ties till date.

Accordingly, the paper argues that to foster a mutually beneficial economic relation, China and Nigeria should negotiate among other issues, investment in key sectors like agriculture and infrastructure, technology transfer and issues of trade imbalances. Nigeria as a nation must also improve on governance and democracy in the country so as to identify and pursue policies that will align with these areas that will contribute to growth and development in the country.