The volume of bilateral trade between Nigeria and Germany has decreased from 5.4 billion Euros in 2014 to 2.9 billion Euros in 2015, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, has said.
Steinmeier, who announced this on Monday at the end of Bi-National Commission between the German delegation and Nigerian counterparts, however, expressed worry over the 50 per cent decrease.
The Nigerian delegation at the meeting was led by Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama.
Steinmeier said Nigeria remained Germany’s second most important economic partner inn Sub Saharan Africa.
He said that there was the need to strengthen on this development in the interest of both countries.
Steinmeier said: “Both sides believe that open markets are the most important prerequisite for free and rules-based trade to everyone’s mutual advantage.
“That includes also security in general and safe maritime transportation.
“Nigeria and Germany agree that investment is crucial in order to boost prosperity, employment development and security, and to improve education.
“Germany welcomes Nigeria’s efforts to diversify the economy which also provides business opportunities for Germany companies.
“Both sides see potential for more efforts to be made, especially in the infrastructure sector.”
According to Steinmeier, to this end German Government offers an Export Credit Guaranteed Scheme as a means of providing support for German export transactions with private buyers in Nigeria.
He added that the scheme offered investment guarantees for German investment in Nigeria.
He said: “In order to deepen our bilateral economic relations, the German Government also supports market exploration missions by business delegation.”
He said that in 2016, Germany had committed eight million Euros for vocational training programme and is prepared to keep promoting vocational training as the recent intergovernmental consultations on the bilateral development cooperation have shown.
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