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Envoy pledges to resuscitate Nigeria, Russia trade relations
Nigeria’s Envoy to the Russian Federation, Mr Abdullahi Shehu, has pledged commitment to resuscitating trade relations between Nigeria and Russia.
Shehu made the pledge in an interview with newsmen on Sunday in Moscow, saying that he was ensuring that Nigeria exported more goods to Russia.
The envoy said that one of his priorities since assuming office as Nigeria’s top envoy to Russia was engaging with businesses and investors in Russia, to facilitate and boost trade relations between Russia and Nigeria.
Shehu lamented the low volume of trade between Nigeria and Russia, saying that trade plunged due to the outbreak of coronavirus in 2020.
The envoy said that to address the challenge, he had to consider areas of the Nigerian economy to focus on to ensure the balance of trade and increase export from Nigeria to Russia.
“We have had robust trade relations with Russia. At a time, our volume of trade with the Russian Federation was highest, especially when the trading was more in the area of arms sales to Nigeria.
“Not long ago, some military hardware was purchased from Russia and the volume of trade became relatively high.
“On their part, Russia exported manufactured and industrial products to Nigeria. On our part, our comparative advantage is to export unprocessed commodities to Russia.
“But we have to make these commodities to be competitive in the international market and with other options that the Russian market is looking up to from us to export to Russia.
“This is what we are building on but as it is now, the volume of trade is relatively low and compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When I assumed duty here last year, my intention was that after the coronavirus pandemic, we needed to increase the volume of trade.
“But unfortunately, with the current crisis in Ukraine every attention is focused on the crisis and the development has affected trade between Russia and Nigeria.
“You know that Nigeria use to import a lot of fertilizers and grains from Russia and Ukraine and we hope that this situation will soon come to an end so that we can continue our economic relations with Russia.”
The envoy said that he had started making contacts with relevant private sector organisations, including the Russian Chambers of Commerce so that Nigeria could identify areas of comparative advantage, to boost its trade with Russia.
On bilateral relations between Nigeria and Russia, Shehu said that both countries had sustained a long-standing relationship, dating back to the Soviet Union era.
He said that Nigeria would never forget the support it received from Russia during the Nigerian civil war.
(NAN)