West African United Business Weekly, the first newspaper in Chinese, was officially issued on Aug.7 (Sunday )in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria.

With the title written by Wan Guoquan, president of the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification, the newspaper was issued and distributed by newly-established West African United Multimedia Co., Ltd.

In an interview with Xinhua, Qian Guolin, president of the newspaper, said the publication of the newspaper "is to meet the requirements of the Chinese economy which has developed rapidly in the economies of Nigeria and other west  African nations."

Qian said proudly that the weekly was the first newspaper in Chinese issued in the west  African region, adding that the publication of  the newspaper signaled that the Chinese people in west Africa "have made great strides forward in creating and improving their lives and expanding their businesses."

According to Qian, the newspaper will gradually expand to be a newspaper published twice a week or thrice a week ,and eventually become a daily newspaper when conditions are ripe.

The newspaper was initiated by the Chinese Industrial and Commercial Enterprises Association two years ago as the association's  A4-sized weekly newsletter.

In the last two years, it has published 50 issues. As the only newspaper in Chinese, the weekly newspaper has grown into a standard-sized newspaper and become one of the most welcomed newspapers among the Chinese readers.

Following fast growth of Chinese-Nigerian bilateral trade and economic cooperation, more and more Chinese companies and businessmen have come to Nigeria, with the number of Chinese people residing in the country from some 10,000 several years ago to over 50,000 now.