President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed plans to strengthen bilateral relations between Nigeria and Netherlands in areas of investment, trade and security.
He disclosed this during a business roundtable with the visiting Prime Minister of The Netherlands, Mark Rutte and members of his delegation at the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday.
Vanguard reports that it was agreed upon by the two leaders that both countries need to specifically improve bilateral trade volumes as well as private sector involvement.
While speaking during the event, President Buhari said that Nigeria is an attractive investments destination as the country offers one of the highest returns on investments in the world.
Speaking further, he said that Nigeria had embarked on massive infrastructural development aimed at creating a conducive atmosphere for business to thrive across the country. He, therefore, urged the Netherlands business community to engage more concretely and collaborate more closely with their Nigerian counterparts for the mutual economic benefit and sustainable development of both countries.
“Nigeria is a very attractive investment destination. Nigeria offers one of the highest returns on investments in the world. Your Excellency, this administration is making frantic efforts to generate stable electricity as witnessed by Nigeria’s recent signing of enhanced power supply with Siemens of Germany.
“This is aimed at eliminating bottlenecks in the grind capacity of our electricity supply for economic growth. As we develop our infrastructure, our microeconomic policies are being strengthened in order to guarantee economic stability.
“Now is the single moment for Nigeria and The Netherlands to engage more concretely and collaborate more closely for our mutual economic benefit and sustainable development of our two countries,’’ he said.
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What you should know: Prime Minister Rutte, who is on a two-day working visit to Nigeria, is leading a trade delegation of eight Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Dutch multinationals currently operating in Nigeria with huge investment portfolios in the agriculture, finance, oil and gas sectors.
Commenting and answering questions from journalists, Prime Minister Rutte commended Nigeria for promoting international law in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. According to him, Nigeria and the Netherlands share the belief that international law contributes to a fair and safer world. He was also impressed with the country, saying it’s 20 times the size of the Netherlands and more people live in Lagos than the whole of his country.
