Nigeria’s ambassadors and high commissioners have been urged to facilitate trade diplomacy in their countries of residence in a bid to increase participation of private investors in foreign countries.
Speaking at a roundtable organised by the National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), the President of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Dr Al-Mujtaba Abubakar, said the increasing pressure on the nation’s economy implied urgency of a productive implementation of economic diplomacy.
Abubakar noted that with economic interests of nations now driving force for national diplomatic focus and attention, Nigeria had adopted economic diplomacy as a major plank of its foreign affairs and activities at regional, continental and global levels.
He, however, stated that areas of urgent attention in the implementation of the policy had not fully been integrated in the nation’s organised private sector as business delegations were still largely populated by public sector representatives, adding that chamber to chamber partnerships between Nigeria and foreign nations were still low and trade facilitation still a major weak point.
Responding, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Romania, Safiya Ahmad Nuhu, urged the private sector to coordinate themselves into an entity through the chamber for easy identification by foreign investors.
On his part, acting DG of NACCIMA, Mr Opeyemi Alaran, called for the need to push beyond policy realms for the private sector to thrive in foreign countries.
