By Nkiruka Nnorom
The German government is eyeing deeper economic ties with Nigeria, seeking to partner in priority sectors, including wine, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, and machinery and construction, among others.
Dr Joe Weingarten, Head of Department of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs,Transport, Agriculture and Viniculture, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, who led an eight-company delegation to Lagos, noted that with trade volume between state of Rhineland-Palatinate and Nigeria already at over €1.5 billion, Nigeria ranked as one of its top African trade partners with further expansion expected with the visit.
He explained that the visit was the state’s first foray into West Africa, focussed on company-to-company talks with chambers and firms in Lagos’ business hub.
According to him, Rhineland-Palatinate sees Nigeria as a production partner rather than just marketplace.
“We (Rhineland-Palatinate) have a very strong economy, a GDP of about 185 billion euros, which is very strong, and more than 1.5 billion euros trade with Nigeria. Nigeria is one of our strong partners in Africa. Besides Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, it’s number four in the trade of our state.
And we are here to increase that trade with Nigeria and with the whole region. Your country is a very interesting market for us because it’s a big country. It has a huge population, a growing population.,” he said.
“Nigeria is very interesting for us. And we could imagine to widen that relation, maybe not only in economic cooperation, but maybe also in political cooperation, but we are interested now at the moment in economic partnerships. That’s why we’re here in Lagos,: he added.
Daniel Krull, German Consul General in Lagos, said that the visit by the delegation was part of a growing wave of German business engagement with Nigeria.
He added that it kicked off series of German trade missions to Lagos this year, backed by the government and signaled more delegations ahead in agri-food, ICT, solar-storage and construction/Infrastructure sectors in the next six months.
“I am happy to announce that we will have more to come in the first six months of this year. We will have a delegation in the context of the Agri-Food Trade Fair here in Lagos. We will have a delegation on information and communication technology. We will have a very exciting delegation on solar storage systems and we will have a business delegation for the construction and infrastructure sectors.”
He highlightedRheinland-Pfalz industrial pedigree – home to Mercedes-Benz truck production, BASF, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Germany’s biggest wine-growing area – while stressing that the real engine is the “hidden champions,” the small and medium-sized firms that export to 130 countries.
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