Nigeria seeks to strengthen cooperation with Egypt in industry, energy and capacity building

Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil met on 28 February 2018 with Aisha Abubakar, the Nigerian minister of state for industry, trade and investment, who is currently visiting Cairo, where they discussed means of enhancing mutual economic cooperation in various fields.

“Deepening economic ties between Egypt and Nigeria is key to pursuing Africa’s business interests and improving its status on the global trade map, both being major economies in the continent,” Kabil stressed.

Egypt, he said, will be participating in next week’s preparatory meeting of African trade ministers in the Rwandan capital Kigali to resume the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) talks, which aims at creating a single African market for goods and services, hence, boosting intra-Africa trade.

The minister noted that African countries, whose total population stands at more than one billion, aim at achieving a Gross Domestic Production (GDP) worth $3 trillion.

The minister asserted the importance of coordinating stances of the African countries to reach common understandings to ensure flow of trade and investment among them.

He also emphasized possible industrial integration between Egypt and Nigeria, with the aim of exporting to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which includes 15 countries.

“There will be close coordination between the trade ministries in both countries to form the Egyptian-Nigerian Business Council,” Kabil added.

Abubakr, for her part, affirmed her country’s keenness to cooperate with Egypt especially in the fields of industry, energy and capacity building.

With inputs from Egypt Today.