Next week, Beijing hosts the 2018 summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, FOCAC. How will Nigeria--as Africa's largest economy --broaden its relations with China at the upcoming Forum? CGTN's Deji Badmus has the story.

If there is one African country that enjoys a robust and strategic bilateral relation with China, it is Nigeria. All across this country, China has its footprints, especially in infrastructure.

MUDA YUSUF, DIRECTOR GENERAL LAGOS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY "We are seeing a lot of railway projects. We are seeing airport projects. We are seeing some state government take advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative. And there are other opportunities within the belt and Road Initiative of the Chinese government. So it's quite beneficial but what is also important is for us to put our house in order to maximize the benefits of the relationship with China."

JOHNSON CHUKWU INVESTMENT BANKER "The largest bilateral financing that Nigeria is enjoying today is coming from China. So it's a deep relationship as it stands today. In effect, China has displaced the western countries in terms of bilateral funding relationship with Nigeria."

Apart from being China's second largest trading partner on the continent, Nigeria is also China's largest export market in Africa. Bilateral trade between both countries in 2017 was estimated at over 12 billion. But it's skewed in favour of China. It's part of the issues economic experts here say the Nigerian delegation to the FOCAC summit in September should seek to address.

JOHNSON CHUKWU INVESTMENT BANKER "What Nigeria needs from China is beyond the exportation of finished products. It's for China to come and set up the manufacturing of some of those products just like China has done in Ethiopia, where China is supporting one of the largest Textile manufacturing centers in Africa. Beyond the export of finished goods, Nigeria needs some level of technology transfer. Nigeria needs some level of industrialization and China is a position to do that."

MUDA YUSUF, DIRECTOR GENERAL LAGOS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY "We know that as a country, one of our major drawbacks is infrastructure and the need to build our infrastructure. So the emphasis of this kind of engagement should be on how we can take advantage of this summit and take advantage of our relationship with China to strengthen our infrastructure. And in doing that, we must also have a framework to ensure that there is some measure of inclusiveness in the process so that you don't have projects that are just turn-key, but projects in which Nigerians can also be part of."

Quite a number of Chinese companies have indeed opened shop in Nigeria manufacturing different kinds of products as a fall out of the Belt and Road Initiative and other bilateral policies of both the Chinese and Nigerian governments. Electronics and Household appliances manufacturer, Skyrun, is a good example. The Chinese company opened its factory in the southern part of Nigeria in 2005. It's now grown to become one of the biggest local manufacturers of Electronics and Household Appliances, competing effectively with other imported brands. It's also provided jobs for thousands of Nigerians and equipped them with necessary technical skills.

DEJI BADMUS NIGERIA "Skyrun is a clear demonstration of technology transfer, something economic experts here and even the Nigerian government say they want to see more of. Perhaps the coming FOCAC summit would provide the platform that will enable more Skyruns to set up in Nigeria. DB,CGTN,L,N."