Trade volume
between Nigeria and Mexico has grown exponentially from $166.5 million in 2012
to $600 million in 2016.
Deputy Head
of Mission of the Mexican Embassy, Rodrigo Tenorio, stated this in Abuja on the
sideline of a roundtable for working business discussion on trade mission to
Mexico organised by the Nigerian-Mexican Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(NMCCI) and Mexican Embassy.
“Though the
figure may be small but in reality it is a huge transaction that we have in the
last 15 years which was $45 million. What that means is that it has grown more
than 500 times and our aims and goal is to have it grow more.
“There are
some similarity between Nigeria and Mexico, we are predominantly largest and
young population and we are about powerhouse of our region just as Nigeria in
Africa,” he said.
The Mexican
envoy said his country sees Nigeria as a natural spring board to stand for the
entire Africa and main goal is to ensure that Nigeria maintain its number one
position as the largest economy in Africa.
He observed
that the major challenge in the relationship between the two countries was that
they did not know each other well.
Tenorio
noted that “once we know that Mexico is more than drug cartel and baron,
Nigeria is much more than a small group in the north causing trouble, the
business people could sit down and start discussing potential businesses for
the future.”
The Vice
President of NMCCI, Dr. Chukwuemeka Elele, disclosed that the Chamber was
launched in December 2014 as part of efforts to further strengthen the
bilateral trade relations, between the two countries adding, that the chamber
organised its first trade mission to Mexico in May 2015 with 35 Nigerian
entrepreneurs participating.
Elele
maintained that the trade mission had given birth to a lot of successful firms
in Nigeria in terms of export to Mexico saying that there was a lot for Nigeria
to gain in business relationship with Mexico.
He said that
Mexico Business Summit was coming up in October 2017 and urged Nigerian
businessmen to take advantage of the opportunities in Mexico.
According to
him, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, Nigerian Export Promotion
Council and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank also participated in the trade
mission.
“These three
organisations signed three Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with their
counterparts in Mexico to promote bilateral trade, investment, joint ventures
and strategic alliances.
Elele
believes that Nigeria, being the largest economy in Africa had a lot to learn
from Mexico, noting that before now, 80 per cent of Mexico’s revenue used to
come from oil just like Nigeria and 20 per cent from manufacturing sector.
Guardian reported.
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