By Olamilekan FAWAS
Nigeria Ambassador to the Netherlands, Oji Ngofa has expressed satisfaction with the current volume of trade between the two countries, which stood at three billion Euro (N1.2trillion) in the first quarter of 2018.
Ngofa made this known in The Hague on Sunday during his background briefing to journalists ahead of President Buhari’s arrival to the Netherlands, on Sunday.
He said top Nigerian government officials would be on hand to have bilateral meetings with their Dutch counterparts in different areas, all geared towards improving the security, economy and governance of Nigeria.
According to the envoy, Nigeria is working assiduously to diversify its export base and increase the non-oil exports from Nigeria to the Netherlands, in line with the administration’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
“The latest figures released by the NBS (Q1) 2018 shows that the Netherlands is currently Nigeria’s largest trading partner, with trade volume of over three billion Euro (N1.2 trillion).
“This total is composed of imports from the Netherlands worth 726 million Euro and exports to the Netherlands of 2.29 billionEuro. Nigeria, therefore, has a healthy trade surplus with the Netherlands, however, a majority of the value of the exports are petroleum based,’’ he said.
The first quarter 2018 figures by the NBS list Nigeria’s top ten export trading partners as Netherlands, India, Spain and United States.
While in the Netherlands, President Buhari is also scheduled to meet with Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte. The security and economic development of Nigeria is firmly on the agenda, ’’ the envoy said.
