The strategic importance of EU to Nigeria's economy

1. The strategic importance of EU to Nigeria's economy The European Union is one of Nigeria’s most important trade partners with the West African country being a key beneficiary of European Union’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). From 25 billion EUR in 2011, the nation’s FDI stock grew to 30 billion EUR in 2013. In terms of exports, Nigeria along with other West African countries namely, Ghana and Ivory Coast make up about 80% of this region exports to the European Union. The legal foundation upon which Nigeria and EU base their partnership on economic development, trade and political policies is the Cotonou Agreement. At present, the EU is one of the biggest non-oil product importers from Nigeria. Yet the West African country’s exports of non-oil items account for less than 5% of its total exports to the EU countries. On the other hand, Nigeria’s crude oil exports account for about 96% of its total exports. In 2014, the country recorded an overall export value of about 28 billion EUR, out of which 1 billion represented its non-oil products. Between 2008 and 2014, as part of its economic and trade development initiative, the EU’s cumulative financial support value to both Nigeria and ECOWAS was over 1.3billion EUR. A major tool that is being considered for the further development of trade relations between the two regions is the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the EU. The implementation of which would see an increase in Nigeria’s chance to diversify its exports to the EU. The agreement allows for the instant elimination of all taxes on West African imports to the European Union. Conversely, it allows for a slow but sure lessening of tariffs on EU imports to West Africa over 20 years for certain products such as machineries, capital goods and transitional items. At the same time, it allows West Africa to uphold tariff protection over its consumer goods and agricultural items. With the aim to improve the West African nation’s competitiveness, the EU has made available several grants to Nigeria. To help the country diversify from an oil-exporting to non-oil exporting nation, it has provided 19 million EUR to the country through the National Planning Commission over a period of five years. Again, executed under the Nigerian Private Sector Competitiveness Support Programme, the EU is assisting the West African nation to set up the National Quality Infrastructure. Seeking to protect the rights of consumers while augmenting the quality of products made in the country, (some of which are exported while the rest is exchanged in the Nigerian market), the EU partners in this project is the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, CPC and NAFDAC, among others.

2. In the energy sphere, as part of the European Union’s 10th European Development Fund (EDF) plan, the Nigeria Energy Support Programme has been started in May 2014 with a completion deadline of September 2017. Executed by GIZ, the programme has received a funding of 15.5 million EUR. The project focuses on a range of energy-related issues ranging from renewable energy, electrification of rural communities, energy efficiency and the development of technical skills. To know More details on Participation of EU in Nigeria's economy Click Below: Eximdesk Buzz