By Giwa SHILE
Denmark ambassador to Nigeria, Torben Gettermann, said Nigeria export to Denmark rose by 156.6 per cent within the first three months of 2018 in relation to the same period in 2017.
The outgoing ambassador said in Abuja that during the period the export from Nigeria to Denmark also rose from 173, 000 dollars to 1.1 million dollars.
Gettermann, who noted with concern that the trade volume was too small, said that he was in Nigeria to enhance the trade relations between his country and Nigeria.
“We have had a trade imbalance; we have imported so much from Nigeria than we have exported.
“At the height of it, it was basically twice as much or thrice as much from Nigeria than what we exported, because we were importing crude oil and this has gone down,” he said.
According to him, there was a significant drop in 2016 and even 2017, but it is going up again slightly in 2017 and it seems to be going up too in 2018.
“In the first three months of 2018, our import of goods from Nigeria worth Danish Krone (DKK) 1.1 million ($173,000). This represents a rise of 156.6 per cent in relation to the same time period in 2017 DKK 400,000 ($64,000),” the envoy said.
He explained that Denmark import from Nigeria totaled DKK 367 million ($57.2M) in 2017 which is a rise of 11.8 per cent relative to 2016.
“The commodity group with the highest import value to Denmark in 2017 was petroleum, petroleum products and related materials worth DKK 365.3 million ($57m). Our import of services from Nigeria totaled DKK 1.1 billion ($800 million) in 2016,” he said.
The envoy explained further that Nigeria was Denmark’s 74th largest export market (goods) in 2017.
He said export of goods from Denmark to Nigeria worth DKK 573 million ($89.3M) in 2017, accounting for 0.09 per cent of total Danish goods exports.
He however said goods exported to Nigeria fell by 4.3 per cent in 2017 in relation to 2016.
The envoy explained that in 2016 goods worth DKK 328 million ($45.2m) was exported to Nigeria while goods worth DKK 367 million ($58.9m) were exported to Nigeria in 2017.
“The commodity group with the highest export value in 2017 was dairy products and birds eggs worth DKK 151.1 million ($23.5m).
“Exports of services to Nigeria totaled DKK 684 million ($106.6m) in 2016. In the first three months of 2018, Danish exports of goods to Nigeria were worth DKK 167.6 million ($26.2m).
“This is a rise of 54.7 per cent relative to the same time period in 2017 of DKK 108.3 million ($16.9m),” he said.
Gettermann stressed that the trade volume was a bit low and has a lot to do with Danish companies not having much focus on Nigeria.
“We have to sell Nigeria to Denmark by telling the good stories; we have to tell them that it is possible to do it in Nigeria, to invest in Nigeria,” he said.
