EMBEDDED BROKERS – HYBRID ACTORS AND THE LOCALIZATION OF CHINA'S INFRASTRUCTURE DIPLOMACY IN NIGERIA

Introduction

China's infrastructure diplomacy, primarily through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has become a pivotal element in its global engagement strategy, fostering economic ties and geopolitical influence in developing regions (Xi, 2017; Dollar, 2019). In Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and a key recipient of Chinese investments, this diplomacy has manifested in major projects such as railways, ports, and energy facilities, with Chinese firms like China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECE) and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) leading initiatives including the Abuja-Kaduna railway and Lekki Deep Sea Port (Ajah & Onuoha, 2025; Zhang, 2023). These projects aim to address Nigeria's infrastructure deficits, estimated at over $3 trillion by 2030 (African Development Bank, 2024), while advancing China's access to resources and markets.

However, the success of these endeavors hinges on localization—the adaptation of foreign projects to local contexts through technology transfer, local employment, regulatory compliance, and community engagement (Brautigam, 2020; Oqubay, 2022). Central to this process are "embedded brokers," hybrid actors who blend state, private, local, and foreign elements to facilitate deals, mitigate risks, and ensure project sustainability (Zhang, 2023; Sun, 2017). These actors, including joint ventures, local elites, and diaspora networks, operate in a hybrid space, navigating between Chinese state-directed goals and Nigerian developmental needs (Ebunike, 2021; Chen, 2021).

Despite growing literature on China-Nigeria relations, there remains a paucity of research on how these hybrid brokers influence localization, often leading to uneven outcomes such as project delays, local resistance, or limited knowledge transfer (Toogood, 2022; Umejei, 2015). This study addresses this gap by examining the role of embedded brokers in localizing China's infrastructure diplomacy in Nigeria, drawing on case studies and mixed methods to provide empirical insights.