Target $80bn trade with Asia in 2yrs
The Federal Govern­ment and Nigeria’s ambassadors across the Asian countries held a strategic meeting in New Delhi, India, for the first time in over 50 years to brainstorm on a strategic synergy aimed at further improving the trade and investment ties with the 15 countries.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, told jour­nalists at the end of the two-day meeting that the Min­istry and the ambassadors resolved to work on doubling the volume of trade between Nigeria and Asia to over $80billion (N13.2trillion) within two years.
Currently, trade volume be­tween Nigeria and 15 Asian countries stands in excess of $40billion (N6.62trillion). India is currently Nigeria’s largest trading partner with a trade volume of about N2.95trillion, followed by China (N2.143trillion).
Trade volume between Nigeria and Australia stands at N534.3billion; Singapore (N293.4billion); Indone­sia (272.8billion); Japan (N263.5billion); and Bangla­desh (N84.5billion), among others.
Fourteen ambassadors, including the Ambassadors of Nigeria to India, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, In­donesia, Thailand, Philip­pines, North Korea, Vietnam, China, South Korea, Sri Lan­ka, Guangzou and Pakistan, attended the meeting.
Key agencies of the Min­istry of Industry, Trade and Investment, such as the Ni­gerian Export Processing Zones Authority, Nigerian Investment Promotion Com­mission, National Automo­tive Council, and the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority, were also at the roundtable.
Aganga said the meet­ing was necessitated by the emergence of Asia as Nige­ria’s major trading and in­vestment partner, adding that there was an urgent need to maintain Nigeria’s current position as the preferred in­vestment destination in Af­rica and globally.
The meeting also opened up fresh investment com­mitments by major Indian companies, who were not yet present in Nigeria.
His words: “Why is this important meeting happen­ing in India? Some may ask. Why not in one of the west­ern nations with whom Ni­geria traditionally had strong trading ties? The reason is that over the last decade, there has been a shift in the dynamics of how Nigeria does business globally. We have seen our nation move from a nation historically joined at the hips with the western world to one which is more and more eastward facing.
“This is evidenced by the fact that Nigeria’s biggest trading partner is now India, with China following closely behind. Nigeria also sells a large portion of its crude to India, while our traditional major buyer- the United States- has moved to 10th place. This scenario mirrors the shift in trading patterns.” 

FG, 14 envoys brainstorm on trade, Investment