The Namibian government announced that the volume of trade between both countries hit $10 million annually.
This was disclosed by Mr. Humphrey Geiseb, High Commissioner of Namibia to Nigeria.
He disclosed this in a press briefing in Abuja, revealing that Namibia mainly exports salts and electronics to Nigeria.
What High Commissioner is saying
He revealed that in the 90s, Nigeria supported Namibia through the Technical Aid Corps in rural areas stating that “Nigeria in the 1990s started the Technical Aid Corps assisting Namibian people in rural areas; today over 4000 people resident in Namibia are Nigerians.
- “Many of them are former Technical Aid Corps members who have chosen Namibia as their home after their contract expired.
- “People to people contact between Namibians and Nigerians is relatively high and, also after independence, many Namibians are resident in Nigeria, but our number is minimal.
- “Annually, we have 1000 travelers from Nigeria to Namibia; most are tourists and people going for business.
- “Government officials do not need visas because we have agreements between both governments. Government officials and diplomats do not need visas to travel between our two countries.
- “Our trade is around 10 million dollars a year, and we are mainly exporting salt and electronics; there is a factory that has been built in Lagos to produce those Namibian electronics,” he stated.
- He added that both governments are hopeful that in August 2022, there will be a Joint Commission Cooperation between Namibia and Nigeria to boost Namibia-Nigeria bilateral cooperation.
- “We will have the next Joint Commission Cooperation between Namibia and Nigeria, where we should be able to put a number of win-win projects between Namibia and Nigeria on the table.
- “This is the 5th time that this Joint Commission will be meeting, and it has stood the test of time.
- “It is a testimony of a strong relationship between them that has been in existence since the difficult days of independence,” he added.
What you should know
- Nairametrics reported earlier this year that the Nigerian National Action Committee on the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, revealed that its strategic objective is to capture 10% of Africa’s imports by 2035, thereby doubling Nigeria’s export in the process.
- Franca Achimugu, Coordinator Oil and Gas Workstream, Secretariat of the National Action Committee on the AfCFTA, said, “AfCFTA means Nigeria is no longer Africa’s largest economy; we need to sit up and get our house in order.”
- She added that Nigeria is aligning itself for agreements, which comes with the elimination of tariffs.
- “Basically it is local content for Africa, Africa by Africa, trade and process products between ourselves.
- “For services, we can establish a mutual agreement, double intra-African trade from 15% and Africa’s contribution of global trade from 3-6% in ten years,” she said.
