The national president of the Association of Small Business Owners of Nigeria (ASBON), Dr Femi Egbesola, has warned that the growing involvement of Chinese nationals in Nigeria's retail trade poses a threat to millions of small businesses. He urged the Federal Government to establish clear boundaries for foreign participation in the country's trading sector. Egbesola spoke against the backdrop of Monday's protest by traders at the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway over the alleged expansion of Chinese merchants into retail trading. The protesters accused some Chinese businesses, who they said initially came as wholesalers, of moving into direct retail sales and competing with Nigerian traders for customers, and the protest was subsequently suspended following interventions by market leaders, local government officials and the police. Egbesola said the issue had been building gradually but had now come to a head.
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