Trade volume between Nigeria and France hits N1.35trn, says French Envoy

The outgoing French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr
Jacques de Labriolle, has put the trade volume
between Nigeria and France in 2014 at more than
N1.35 trillion.

Labriolle told NAN on Sunday in Abuja that the
volume of trade in 2013 was not different from the
2014 figure, describing 2014 as a “very difficult
year” for both countries.

“The current exchanges, if you add up import and
export, are a little more than six billion Euros.
“We buy every year about four billion Euro
(approximately N900 billion) of crude oil.

“And we re-export between 1.5 billion Euros
(approximately N340 billion) and two billion Euros
(approximately N450 billion) of French products
including refined oil products.

“2014 was a year was very difficult because of
Ebola crisis and because of the slowing down of
business because of the elections.

“But basically, we made in 2014 exactly the same
figure as in 2013; the 2014 result was 12 per cent
more than 2012.”

Labriolle said that the volume of the trade was
good as it was now on the increase, stressing the
need for the trade curve to be on a steady rise for
15 years.the whole African continent and has been for a longtime.”

The envoy said France was working to increase her
political and diplomatic relations with Nigeria.
According to him, the economic relations have been
growing because of the country’s investments
particularly in the petroleum sector.

“What we are trying to do is to put political and
diplomatic cooperation at the same level where oil
and oil exploitation have put them in a long term.

“In fact, France is one of the main investors in
Nigeria because of Total, which have, in fact, more
than 50 billion Euros (approximately N11.3 trillion)
investment in Nigeria.

“So it is a very long term relationship, which has
started with oil about 50 years ago and which is
now diversifying into other fields such as electricity
and industry,” he said.