Decentering the Dollar in Africa-China Trade: How Nigerian Entrepreneurs Navigate Currency Swaps and Digital Currencies in an Era of USD Hegemony and RMB Internationalization

Abstract

Debates on dedollarizing and internationalizing China's currency, the renminbi (RMB), often focus on state-led initiatives such as bilateral currency swaps and Central Bank Digital Currencies while overlooking the role of entrepreneurs utilizing US dollar (USD) alternatives. Ethnographic fieldwork with Nigerian importers of Chinese goods reveals how parallel payment currencies and channels - informal naira-RMB transfers and illicit cryptocurrency transactions - are just as essential in the Global South to decenter US dominance: its currency, institutions, and authority. Analyzing formal monetary policies and local money practices, Liu shows how Nigerian importers cultivate multicurrency fluency, which is vital in an incipient era of political and economic multipolarity.