Nigerian Executives Must Learn How Chinese Business Works, CEIBS Africa Says

China European International Business School inducted new members of its Nigeria Alumni Chapter in Lagos recently, where the school’s Executive Director, Prof. Gordon Adomdza, told business leaders they need to learn how Chinese companies operate as the country partners with more businesses worldwide.

The ceremony, held on Victoria Island, also marked the launch of the chapter’s new alumni website, drawing alumni and programme graduates from across Nigeria.

CEIBS has more than 33,000 alumni across 91 countries. The Financial Times ranked its Global EMBA second in the world in 2025, and its MBA has held first place in Asia for ten consecutive years.

Adomdza’s remarks came as China’s removal of tariffs on all Nigerian goods, effective May 1, 2026, opened the widest market access Beijing has offered the continent. Trade between the two countries passed $28 billion in 2025. Most Nigerian managers, he said, now deal with Chinese firms as suppliers, partners, or competitors, often without the training to read how those firms operate.

“China’s presence on the African continent keeps growing, which means managers and entrepreneurs will end up working with Chinese firms one way or another, directly or through a partner. If we want Africa built on our own terms, our executives need to understand how these global companies do business and how they negotiate,” Adomdza said.

“An executive who does not understand how the company across the table operates will take the terms on offer, not the terms they could have negotiated,” he added. “That is what this education changes. We are not teaching people to be wary of Chinese capital. We are teaching them to engage it from a position of knowledge.”

CEIBS closes that gap, according to him, by teaching executives to read business from both Western and Eastern vantage points rather than one alone. The goal, he added, is adaptation: study what has worked in comparable markets, then build local solutions on that evidence rather than copy foreign models wholesale.

Saidat Lawal-Mohammed, Country Manager for CEIBS Africa in Nigeria, said the school’s China Immersion Programme gives participants direct exposure to Chinese business practices. Participants study China’s development from a starting point similar to Nigeria’s, meet business owners, study companies, and tour trading hubs to observe deal-making firsthand.

Saidat also announced that the Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership for Africa programme (WELA) will run in Abuja for the first time, expanding beyond Lagos. Participants from the Federal Capital Territory and surrounding states will now attend classes there.

Nigeria Alumni President Omoyemi Chukwurah, an alumna of the Owner Director Programme (ODP) and WELA, said the new website gives members a permanent space for mentorship, collaboration, and business introductions.