The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Mr Boss Gida Mustapha has called for increased trade volume between Nigeria and Ukraine.
He made the call Thursday in Abuja during the Nigeria-Ukraine Trade and Investment round table meeting.
He said the trade volume between Nigeria and Ukraine was $93.3m as at November 2017, which he said was a 4 percent decrease in the 2016 figures and expressed hope that the trade volume between the two countries will increase with the visit of the Ukrainian delegation.
“The visit came at a time Nigeria is pursuing economic growth that will aid its vision of being among top 20 economies in the world. As at November last year, trade volume between Nigeria and Ukraine was 93.3million which is a decrease by four percent in 2016. With your visit we hope the volume of trade would increase in 2018,” Mustapha said.
While saying that for the country’s economy to grow, Nigeria must develop its inland water ways to reduce traffic on the roads, he said that Nigeria has 10,000 kilometers waters ways and 4,000 are navigable and that if fully developed can take away pressure from the roads as the bulk of the cargo can go on the water ways.
On her part, the Trade Representative of Ukraine, Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, Natalia Mykolska said Nigeria is a long standing friend of Ukraine and that Nigerian students in Ukraine are the best ambassadors for both countries.
“Nigeria is a strategic partner, we believe trade is not a one way street, we need to think of import, export and joint cooperation. More than 10 Ukraine companies that represent different sectors of the economy are on this delegation, agriculture and food sector, grains and food cooperation, machine building factory, breaks and blots use in automotive sector, pharmaceutical sector, poultry,” she said.
Nigeria office of trade negotiations, Chief Trade Negotiator Director General, Ambassador Chinedu Osakwe said the global financial crisis of 2008 affected Nigeria and in 2014, the oil price crisis affected Nigeria also, adding that import from Ukraine to Nigeria is N91bn while export from Nigeria is N90m.
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