EU to facilitate more investments into Nigeria

The European Union (EU) said it would help in facilitating more EU investment flow into Nigeria.

EU Ambassador and Head of EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Michell Arion, s‎tated this in Abuja at a local political dialogue between Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, other ministry officials; and 20 representatives of EU member states in Nigeria.

He said the meeting focused on Buhari’s three-point agenda of security, economy and corruption as well as others which include irregular migration and the humanitarian situation in the northeast.

‎“We believe that our prosperity is your prosperity, we see West Africa as a block of ECOWAS and Nigeria as the economic base.
“We see West Africa not as export designation for the EU but investment destination for EU, we don’t have hidden agenda.

“I will say that what we can do is to facilitate the EU investment in Nigeria will be absolutely key, not only at the level of bilateral relations but in other fora,” he said.

He said that the meeting also focused on the Buhari’s agenda of security, economy.

He said that the whole point was not on what the EU can do for Nigeria but what the EU and Nigeria could do together.

According to him, “I believed that there are a lot of things we can do together basically in two main areas one is peace and security and security.

“We really believed that our security in the EU is your security; I believe we are fighting the same terrorists.

“The one we are fighting in West Africa may go to Europe and the one we are fighting in Europe may come to West Africa.

“We have common challenges and we can do much more together in fighting terrorists and other criminals such as smugglers.

We can work together that is for peace and security,” .

Earlier Onyeama said the political dialogue was a product of communiqué signed last year between Nigeria and EU which focused on security, corruption, prosperity, migration and human development.

The minister commended the role EU played in democratisation of Nigeria and contribution to the nation’s development especially in the area of economy, and security among others.

He said “The important thing is value addition in processing, packaging is all important to provide employment to Nigerian youths.

“We are in the process of diversification away from oil, and we are looking to an important trading partner and we naturally looked to the EU to explore trade opportunity to our country.

“I will like to appeal to EU and other partners to consider increasing investment and also in other areas beyond the oil sector such as agriculture and mining,”.

 

LAIDE AKINBOADE-ORIERE