On the first day of a two-nation tour to Sub-Saharan Africa, Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz said his country was willing to invest in gas and vital minerals in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer.
Scholz is visiting the region for the third time in two years, as tensions abroad underline the growing importance of an energy-rich region in which Berlin has historically had little role.
Scholz told reporters at a joint briefing with President Bola Tinubu in the capital, Abuja, on Sunday that aside from critical minerals, Germany is interested in investing in Nigeria’s natural gas sector.
However, he said that certain factors will need to be put in place, such as gas pricing.
“If we are successful, if there is a better chance of exporting the produced gas, it is then the question for German companies to do their private business.
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“This will also impact the global gas price; if more states offered gas on the global market, prices would decrease,” he said. “It is important to use the capacities where they are and that we diversify production all over the globe.”
Meanwhile, Tinubu said that he had “a very deep discussion” on the gas problem and encouraged German companies to invest in pipelines in Nigeria.
Nigeria is also attempting to get investors into its mining sector, which has long been underdeveloped, contributing less than 1 per cent to the country’s GDP.
Without going into specifics, Scholz said that German corporations were also interested in building railways in Nigeria.
This sector is currently dominated by Chinese corporations, which have won contracts to expand train lines in Africa’s largest economy.
