Trade volume of Nigeria, Mexico hits $600m

Trade volume between Nigeria and Mexico has grown exponentially from $166.5 million in 2012 to $600 million in 2016.

Deputy Head of Mission of the Mexican Embassy, Rodrigo Tenorio, stated this in Abuja on the sideline of a roundtable for working business discussion on trade mission to Mexico organised by the Nigerian-Mexican Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NMCCI) and Mexican Embassy.

“Though the figure may be small but in reality it is a huge transaction that we have in the last 15 years which was $45 million. What that means is that it has grown more than 500 times and our aims and goal is to have it grow more.

“There are some similarity between Nigeria and Mexico, we are predominantly largest and young population and we are about powerhouse of our region just as Nigeria in Africa,” he said.

The Mexican envoy said his country sees Nigeria as a natural spring board to stand for the entire Africa and main goal is to ensure that Nigeria maintain its number one position as the largest economy in Africa.

He observed that the major challenge in the relationship between the two countries was that they did not know each other well.

Tenorio noted that “once we know that Mexico is more than drug cartel and baron, Nigeria is much more than a small group in the north causing trouble, the business people could sit down and start discussing potential businesses for the future.”

The Vice President of NMCCI, Dr. Chukwuemeka Elele, disclosed that the Chamber was launched in December 2014 as part of efforts to further strengthen the bilateral trade relations, between the two countries adding, that the chamber organised its first trade mission to Mexico in May 2015 with 35 Nigerian entrepreneurs participating.

Elele maintained that the trade mission had given birth to a lot of successful firms in Nigeria in terms of export to Mexico saying that there was a lot for Nigeria to gain in business relationship with Mexico.

He said that Mexico Business Summit was coming up in October 2017 and urged Nigerian businessmen to take advantage of the opportunities in Mexico.

According to him, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, Nigerian Export Promotion Council and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank also participated in the trade mission.

“These three organisations signed three Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with their counterparts in Mexico to promote bilateral trade, investment, joint ventures and strategic alliances.

Elele believes that Nigeria, being the largest economy in Africa had a lot to learn from Mexico, noting that before now, 80 per cent of Mexico’s revenue used to come from oil just like Nigeria and 20 per cent from manufacturing sector.