Abstract:

The 21st century developing and under-developed economies are being relegated to the status neo-colonial states. Developed economies like China, Russia and United States of America are really in the scramble for more neo-colonial states, mostly in Africa. This has presented itself through the economic relationship among states. The economic relationship under consideration here, is taking new turns with emerging global trends and the desire of developing states to alleviate or eradicate poverty. The economic relationship between developed and developing states has grown from exchange of goods and investment to the execution of infrastructure loan on the understanding that the receiving states (borrower in this instance) shall mortgage its local resources to secure the loan. This is clearly the greatest limitation to the sovereignty of developed states under the guise of business agreements. The objective of this article is to examine a number of resource-backed lending system between developed and developing states, delving more into the business relationship between China and Nigeria, this examination is further related to the relationship between China and states like Angola and Congo. The question sought to be answered is whether this system has proved to be beneficial or detrimental to the sovereignty of developing states is considered in this study. This is done by examining the Nigeria-China Bilateral Investment Treaty and the $400 million Loan Agreement (“Loan Agreement”) executed by the Ministry of Finance on behalf of Nigeria and the Export –Import Bank of China for the Nigeria National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure Backbone Phase II Project in 2018.