A Japanese agency has disclosed its plan to establish an automotive plant in Nigeria.
This, the agency said, was part of wider plans to strengthen bilateral relations between Nigeria and Japan.
The plan was made known today by the chief representative of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Yuzurio Susumu, when he paid the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Evelyn Ngige, a visit in her office in Abuja.
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Ngige, in a statement, appreciated JICA’s collaboration in the review of trade and industrial policies between the two countries.
The review, the statement said, included coordination, cooperation and implementation of such policies in Nigeria.
Ngige urged JICA to leverage on Japan’s trade and industrial policies as a working document in the review to achieve optimum results.
She highlighted other areas of collaboration as including training of young professionals of the ministry, e-commerce, animation, artificial intelligence and other capacity-building programmes.
Susumu stated that the government of Japan was always ready to collaborate with Nigeria to strengthen trade bilateral relationship between the two countries, adding that a plan in the pipeline to achieve that was to establish an automotive industry for Africa, with Nigeria as the focal point.
THE ICIR reports that the Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Matsunaga Kazuyoshi, had earlier in the year disclosed that the total trade volume between Nigeria and Japan was $1 billion annually, and needed to be increased.
Kazuyoshi stressed that the Japanese government was willing to boost trade volumes between both nations, citing the need for more bilateral trade between the two countries to enhance the economic growth of Nigeria with the ultimate view of addressing unemployment and poverty.
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.
