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The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has called for partnerships with German companies to support Nigeria’s drive toward achieving a $1 trillion economy by 2030.
Senator Bagudu made the call in Abuja on Wednesday when he received a delegation from the Giessen-Friedberg Chambers of Commerce from Germany in his office.
He stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has outlined an ambitious plan to accelerate Nigeria’s economic growth and achieve the $1 trillion target.
“Our president has challenged all of us in his team that he wants us to generate a $1 trillion economy by the year 2030. It’s a very big ambition and most of the growth is to come from the private sector. Nigeria has a huge absorptive capacity, especially in technologies that Germany and German companies and skilled German workers have in abundance, which we believe can help in generating this growth in a mutually beneficial manner.
“We want German companies – small, medium and big to play a bigger role in Nigeria. We want our entrepreneurs to link up with German ecosystem, technology, skilled manpower and know-how so that we can generate more trade growth, we can generate more value from our relationship, which can even absorb some of the skilled manpower we are targeting,” he said.
He noted that Germany has recorded remarkable successes, and its government has continued to support Nigeria in mobilizing its youth to focus on sectors where the country holds a comparative advantage.
Senator Bagudu stated that his ministry is leading efforts to identify and map out the unique opportunities across the 8,809 wards in the country, with a view to harnessing their potential to drive economic growth and promote shared prosperity.
“Nigeria is a federation like Germany, may be with a little bit of difference. We have state governments, we have local governments and at the bottom of our local governments we have wards. We have 8,809 of those wards. So now this ministry is leading the efforts to understand the unique opportunities that are in each of those wards and see how we can use them to generate more growth, more prosperity. Of course, at the root of it will be know-how innovation, creative disruption and technology, which we believe this partnership can help us with,” he said.
The Minister reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to curbing illegal migration, emphasizing that President Tinubu’s administration is creating vast opportunities for young Nigerians thereby making migration a matter of choice, not necessity.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of the Giessen-Friedberg Chambers of Commerce of Germany, Dr. Matthias Leder, extended an invitation to the Minister to serve as the keynote speaker of their annual B2B Conference tagged “The World Meets in Giessen”, which will provide opportunities to small and medium businesses to attract foreign direct investments.
According to him, this year’s event attracted 160 participants from 14 countries, where companies were paired with larger counterparts through the use of Artificial Intelligence.
He stated that the Dual Vocational Training programme in Germany has commenced with the selection of 18 Nigerians, who will first undergo German language training before being deployed to factories in Germany for a three-year theoretical and practical training programme.
Other members of the delegation from the IHK Giessen-Friedberg Chambers of Commerce are: Marina França Leder, wife of the CEO; Tim Müller (Deputy Director, Foreign Trade);
Norbert Noisser (Senior Advisor Africa/China)
and Dr. Kristen Albrecht (Head of Competence Centre Africa)
