Nigeria, March 6 -- When the United States and Nigeria signed a landmark Commercial and Investment Partnership (CIP) in Washington in July 2024, the announcement attracted little fanfare. There were no dramatic declarations, no contest of flags.

But the five-year framework, backed by the US Department of Commerce, the US Department of Agriculture, and a web of American trade and development finance agencies, has since grown into one of the most consequential economic arrangements Nigeria has entered into in recent history.

It is also the clearest articulation yet of how Washington intends to compete with Beijing for influence and investment in Nigeria: not by outspending China's state-backed loan apparatus, but by building commercial fr...