By Dipo Olowookere
The trade volume between Nigeria and the European Union (EU) reached about €25.3 billion in 2017, a senior official of the EU has disclosed.
Speaking with newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja, the Head of EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr Ketil Karlsen, disclosed that this figure was an increase of 27 percent over that of 2016, which was €19.9 billion.
According to him, about 50 percent of the 2017 trade value was in favour of Nigeria.
However, Mr Karlsen said the EU remains the most significant trading partner for Nigeria, stressing that trade and investment was an integral part of Europe partnership with Nigeria.
“About €25.3 billion was traded in 2017. There is clear significant surplus in the benefit of Nigeria.
“Of the trade volume, around 50 percent more is actually benefitting Nigeria,” the EU senior official told journalists ahead of the forthcoming Europe Day on Wednesday, May 9, 2018.
Europe Day is the name of an annual observance by the EU also known as Schuman Day, in commemoration of the 1950 Schuman Declaration.
It is the EU’s “equivalent of a national day”, and its observance is strongly associated with the display of the EU’s equivalent of a national flag, the European flag or emblem.
The Europe Day of the EU was introduced in 1985 by the European Communities (the predecessor organisation of the EU).
The declaration proposed the pooling of French and West German coal and steel industries, leading to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the first European Community, established in 1952.