By Usman Ibn A. Lapai
Kaduna
European Union (EU) has budgeted €512 million for Nigeria and €1.1 billion for West Africa under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) to cover the period from 2014 to 2020.
EU’s Ambassador Michel Arrion, who disclosed this yesterday at the EU-Kaduna Trade and Investment Seminar in Kaduna, said the Union remained the most important development partner in Nigeria.
He said EU had realised that working with governments was not enough to support the sustainable development of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partners.
EU, according to him, also noted that development aids were not in themselves a sustainable way to economic growth, stressing that that was reason the Union started to engage more with the private sector.
“And we have decided together with our ACP partners to use trade in a way to complement and support our development cooperation activities,” he said.
Arrion said at market of over 500 million peoples, the EU believed in the power of trade in driving development, and would love to share its experiences to their friends and partners around the world, like Nigeria and ECOWAS.
He also said the EU strongly believed that equitable trade was the key to lift millions out of poverty and drive economic growth and development
according to him, the seminar is a follow up to other events EU organised in Nigeria in collaboration with ECOWAS Commission and the EU member-states in order to enlighten private sector stakeholders on the aim and objectives of the benefits of improved trade relations between EU and Nigeria.
He said the EU had no interest to economically colonise the West African market as was being speculated in some media reports and uninformed stakeholders, adding that “pursuing such objectives would only increase poverty in the region, create instability and run counter to all their developments cooperation efforts that have been pursed for decades in West Africa.”
Executive Director/CEO, NEPC, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, in a goodwill message, said the seminar was timely.
“The timing of this program, which addresses two themes: the EU – West African economic partnerships Agreements, EPA, increased opportunities for trade and investments, and opportunities for increased exports in the agribusiness and textiles sectors could not be more in tune with the government’s new vision for Nigeria.” He said.
Awolowo said “Nigeria has realised that its overdependence on oil exports as its primary source of revenue is no longer sustainable, but to provide support for farmers, textiles workers, small and medium enterprises business owners and youth.”
