EU, Nigeria Business Forum Platform for Deeper Cooperation-Minister
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Tuggar on Tuesday said the Federal Government would continue to do all it could to tackle issues relating to irregular migration in the country.
The minister said this at the 9th edition of the Nigeria-EU Business Forum with the theme, “Investing in Jobs and Sustainable Future” in Abuja.
Tuggar who was represented at the event by Mr Bolaji Akinremi, the Director, Economy, Trade, and Investment, Department in the ministry, said the forum was designed as a platform for engagement and identifying opportunities for business, trade, and sustainable investment under the EU Global Gateway strategy of the EU.
The Global Gateway strategy of the EU seeks to raise 300 billion euros by 2027 to support the financing of high-quality, sustainable infrastructures that comply with the highest social and environmental standards, in line with EU values and norms.
According to the minister, the Federal Government will do its best to tackle issues about irregular migration and climate change.
“We do not in any way promote irregular migration, we will do everything to ensure our relationship with the EU works smoothly. The ministry is doing everything to promote the President Bola Tinubu administration’s 4-D foreign policy agenda and to work perfectly with the EU,” Tuggar said.
Speaking at the event also, Atiku Bagudu, Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and Economic Planning commended organisers of the forum for the timeliness of the forum, saying it would deepen cooperation between the two countries.
He added that the forum would strengthen interaction avenues for Nigeria and EU to interact and advance their cooperation. We share a lot with the EU on global priorities such as energy transition, infrastructure financing, and support of private sector companies in a relationship that is evolving and we want to do more.
“By signing an agreement we are going to maximise assets to global gateways, we want European companies to come and invest here, we also want to invest in the EU. We also know issues of concern to the EU that are of relative concern to us, such as irregular migration and we do not want an irregular migration.
“We want our children to go to the EU countries out of choice and not compulsion. We do not want them to be a nuisance,’’ Bagudu said. Ms Myriam Ferran, European Commission’s Deputy Director-General on International Partnerships, promised to deepen ties between the EU and Nigeria through the business forum.
“Our objective in the framework of implementing the Global Gateway strategy at the European Commission is to support business development in Nigeria in collaboration with the EU. Basically, we focus each year on specific metrics to improve the business relationship between EU companies and Nigeria in specific economic sectors.
“This year, we will work on climate resilient agriculture. We will discuss pharmaceuticals and vaccine manufacturing and we are going to talk about digitalisation.
“So, we can expand as many companies as we can, but our objective is to reach out to even more, which is the reason this business forum will be streamed on the internet to reach more people,’’ she said.
High points of the forum were the signing of agreements for specific projects such as EU Support for Agricultural Value Chain Development (EU-VACE), and the European Bank for Investment (EIB) funding of Nigerian pharmaceutical company Emzor. NACETEM Developing Capacity of Nigerians for Local Boat Building
