Nigeria and China have agreed to enhance their cooperation on financial intelligence to fight money laundering and other financial crimes in the African country.

According to DailyTrust, a joint statement issued by the two countries said the agreement was aimed at supporting Nigeria’s efforts to safeguard the order of its financial and foreign exchange markets and crack down on financial crimes.

The statement followed a meeting by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China, on Tuesday.

The statement also highlighted the importance of regional and monetary cooperation, encouraging flexible and diverse cooperation such as local currency swaps to facilitate trade between China and Nigeria and contribute to global financial stability.

“Both countries agreed to support Nigeria’s geographical and development advantage in West Africa to establish Africa’s flagship projects on cross-national and cross-regional cooperation

“They also agreed to deepen cooperation on the infrastructure connectivity between the two countries. China proactively supports Nigeria in developing its domestic infrastructure construction, including transportation, ports and free trade zones, towards achieving integrated development and connectivity for industries.

“The two sides encourage flexible and diverse regional and monetary and financial cooperation such as local currency swaps, to facilitate trade between China and Nigeria and make contributions to global financial stability

“The two countries agree to carry out international cooperation on financial intelligence on anti-monetary laundering/ countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) and support Nigeria’s efforts to safeguard the order of its financial and foreign exchange markets and to crack down on financial crimes, including money laundering”, the statement said.