TheCable

Teshome Nkrumah, deputy high commissioner of Canada to Nigeria, says the country is making efforts to do better in improving the current volume of trade, which presently stands at $2.7 billion.

Nkrumah said this during a courtesy visit to Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, in Abeokuta, Ogun state.

According to a statement by Kehinde Akinyemi, media aide to Obasanjo, the high commissioner, who is responsible for the Commercial Relationship between Canada and Nigeria, was on regional outreach to Abeokuta to boost trade between the two countries. 

“We are on agricultural outreach to try to find out the opportunities in the local market to do business and boost trade between the two countries. We are meeting business people and entrepreneurs just to see where the opportunities are,” the statement quoted Nkrumah as saying.

“And I was pleased to meet with the largest farmer in the state and former president. We had a nice conversation and shared his views about how to grow the farming industry in Nigeria, and we are working towards achieving synergy between Canada and Nigeria.  

“We are here to build bridges, make connections and see where we can make changes to move trade between both countries forward.” 

On bilateral trade, Nkrumah said: “Currently, I think we can do so much better. There is $2.7 billion of trade between our two countries and happily, it is in favour of Nigeria. $2 billion is for Nigeria’s export from Canada and about $700 million is for export from Canada to Nigeria. 

“But, there is still more to grow in terms of opportunities. If we are very much focused and structured and look for where to grow opportunities we can still see our export growth.”