Taiwan’s Ambassador to Nigeria and Representative, Taipei Trade Office Andy Yih-Ping Liu, has disclosed that Taiwanese investors are currently looking to expand investment in Nigeria. The investors are looking to set up manufacturing plant and other businesses, in a bid to boost trade between both countries.
Liu, made this known at the ongoing 17th Abuja International trade fair organised by the Abuja Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and also sponsored by the Taiwanese government.
“Our companies have started examining future investment opportunities. In the past one and half months, we already had two major delegations from Taiwan to explore the investment opportunities,” he said.
“One of them is a top Taiwanese steel pipe company, they want to see if they can set up a factory to manufacture steel pipe for customers in Africa and Europe. The second delegation came only two weeks ago, they went to Lagos for a one-on-one trade tour with quite a lot of Nigerian companies who would like to do business. So currently we would do a short term trade promoting and at the same time do the long term investment promotion.”
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To this end, the ambassador urged the Nigerian government to renew investment protection agreement with Taiwan so that investors can have a secure investment climate for both Nigeria’s investing in Taiwan and Taiwanese investing in Nigeria.
Liu also noted that the trade volume between Nigeria and Taiwan has increased to $1 billion, representing a 200 percent increase. He said Nigeria enjoyed a huge trade surplus in commodities such as Sesame, groundnut and some petroleum products shipped to Taiwan; while Taiwan also exported automobile parts, hand tool and machinery for agriculture, among others.
“In the year 2021, the trade volume between Nigeria and Taiwan had jumped up 200 percent. This is a very amazing kind of progress and we definitely would like to continuously promote; that is why we came to participate in the most important Abuja trade fair to promote trade,” he said.
He noted that the $5 million loan facility being provided by the Nigerian export import bank with Taiwan export import bank has yielded significant results, saying more Nigerian companies are looking to do business with Taiwan. He disclosed that the programme may he expanded.
As Nigeria prepares for the 2023 general elections, the envoy urged the Nigerian government to uphold the true value of democracy. He also assured of Taiwan continued support to Nigeria especially in facilitating trade between countries.
Mai Liu, from Maxxis, a Taiwanese company operating in Nigeria, speaking at the trade fair, urged the Nigerian government to continue to make the business environment more friendly, especially for foreign investors.
According to her, business has been difficult so far in 2022 due to the foreign exchange crises and depreciation of the naira as well as the economic hardship which has reduced purchasing power of individuals.
“We need a lot of help from government, especially electricity. We need more stable economy to boost purchasing power, we need investment infrastructure to open up to more foreign investment,” she urged.
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