Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo set off for France on Monday on a mission to win debt relief and greater inward investment and to push his country’s case for a seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council.
During the four-day working visit, he is due to meet President Jacques Chirac, officials and business leaders from the country that is now the second-biggest investor in the West African giant’s economy after the United States.
Most importantly, as with recent meetings with Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush, Obasanjo will urge Paris to cancel Nigeria’s $35-billion external debt.
”This is a visit that President Obasanjo is particularly happy about. It affords him the opportunity, once more, to meet President Jacques Chirac and French investors,” said Obasanjo’s spokesperson Remi Oyo.
”He will also brief the French president on crises in Africa and efforts being made to resolve them in his capacity as African Union chairman,” she added.
”He will brief him on developments in Togo, the AU mission in Côte d’Ivoire. They will also discuss situations in Guinea Bissau, a country which he visited on Saturday along with some other African leaders.
”We also need French assistance in the Nigerian campaign for a seat in the UN Security Council,” she added.
As Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria hopes to secure one of two African seats in a proposed expansion of the council.
Obasanjo is due to leave office in 2007 after two elected terms, and hopes his renewed drive to combat corruption and waste in his country’s murky public finances will convince creditor nations to grant him debt relief as a legacy.
Nigeria’s former colonial ruler, Britain, has responded positively, but France and the US have been more reticent, arguing that at a time of soaring world oil prices, Nigeria ought to be able to pay what it owes.
But while France has been an obstacle within the Paris Club of lending nations to Nigeria’s quest for debt cancellation, it has become an important economic partner in other spheres.
”France is one of the critical, main investors in Nigeria. French investments are increasing in Nigeria,” said Oyo.
French imports from Nigeria were worth €912-million last year, with 95% of the total accounted for by oil and natural gas. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil exporter and the ninth-biggest producer in the world.
Nigeria imported French goods — essentially industrial equipment, cars and refined fuels — worth €72-million, making it France’s second-biggest client on the continent, behind South Africa and ahead of Côte d’Ivoire.
With business in the country worth €4-billion, France is the second-largest investor in Nigeria after the US, according to French officials, principally in the oil and motor industries.
Peugeot Nigeria is run in partnership between the French firm and the Nigerian government. Meanwhile, with 3 600 employees in the southern city of Port Harcourt, tyre giant Michelin employs more Nigerians than most oil majors.
”Peugeot is providing serious service in the Nigerian automotive and transport sectors,” said Oyo.
”For example, the Abuja taxi programme is launched with Peugeot cars. We are also in a hurry to get back to massive production of Peugeot cars in Nigeria.”
French investment in Nigeria is hampered, however, by the volatile political and economic climate and by an influx of Asian, particularly Chinese products, many of them counterfeits of European exports, according to French officials.
According to Chinese figures, Chinese exports to Nigeria jumped from $1,76-billion in 2003 to $2,28-billion in 2004.
Peugeot Nigeria’s orders have fallen by about two-thirds in three years thanks to an influx of false Chinese spare parts, according to French official documents.
Meanwhile, however, French energy giant Total continues to invest massively and plans to double its production over the next few years as more deepwater fields come online in the Gulf of Guinea. — Sapa-AFP