Media reportage of insecurity impedes Nigeria, Pakistan trade relation – Danladi

What is the level of Nigeria, Pakistan bilateral relations?Nigeria and Pakistan have entered a new era of relationship. As you may know both countries established relationship 30 years ago and we are also members of various international organizations like the D8 countries, organization of Islamic countries (OIC), etc. However, over the years, a lot more […]

What is the level of Nigeria, Pakistan bilateral relations?
Nigeria and Pakistan have entered a new era of relationship. As you may know both countries established relationship 30 years ago and we are also members of various international organizations like the D8 countries, organization of Islamic countries (OIC), etc. However, over the years, a lot more have been achieved in terms of trade and investment between the two countries. Despite the fact that Pakistan achievement in the areas of agriculture, it has over 45 thousand vibrant industries in the areas of agriculture, pharmaceuticals, textiles, surgical equipments and hospitals and the country is also a nuclear power in Asia. Pakistan has equally achieved a lot in terms of technological development because they produced hard defense requirements when we talk about arm and ammunitions, logistic requirements for the members of the armed forces and police uniforms, shoes, booths are all produced locally in Pakistan. They have also been able to produced armoured carriers, fighter jets; they just launched the thunder GF17 aircraft which is competing with F710. In terms of technological development, they have gone far. So what we are trying to do is, as developing countries we know where our problem lies and we will look at areas where we have comparative advantage so that we can share, develop our countries and move forward. At bilateral level, I am pleased to inform Nigerians that for the first time since we establish our relationship, the joint ministerial commission meeting will hold today and tomorrow. This is the first time this kind of joint commission meeting will take place in Nigeria in 30 years. During the meeting we will be looking at agreements in the area of agriculture for example, fertilizer production, farm implements production, tractors, soil nutrients, rice processing mills. In the area of textile, as you know all our textile industries are not functional and we spend our hard earned foreign exchange to import textile materials. In 2013 alone we spent over $6 billion in importation of textile materials and you see the textile industries are avenue to generate huge employment opportunity because an average textile firm we get about 15 thousand people working for it, so if we can have two textile industries in each geo political zone of the country we would be getting close to 700 thousand employment opportunity with the multiply effect of it on the local community as well as on the distributors and retailers.
At the end of the day, we will also look at the bilateral air service agreement so that we can have direct flights between both countries for easy movement of people and goods. All things been equal, we are expecting again for the first time in the history of Nigeria the visit of the Pakistani president to Nigeria  hopefully by the end of April and that visit will now translate into the signing of whatever agreement that would have been reached during the joint commission meeting.
With the military cooperation between the two countries, in what ways are they helping each other to address insecurity challenges especially terrorism?
A lot has been achieved in the area of military cooperation and we have an existing number of understandings and from the 80s till now a lot of our military officers have received various trainings in Pakistan. Recently inspector general of police was in Pakistan who held discussion with his counterpart and visited a lot of training institutions. An offer for the training of the Nigerian police has been made especially on various aspect of counter terrorism and soon as the MoU is finalized some of our officers will be receiving their trainings in Pakistan. Again, we are also looking at adapting domestication of the production of police uniforms in Nigeria. We are looking at the possibility of partnering with textile factories in Pakistan to do that here in Nigeria. All these are gear towards conserving our foreign reserves so that we can create opportunities for our teeming youths in the country.
What has been Nigeria’s contribution to the bilateral relations between the two countries because it has been more of Pakistan doing this or that for Nigeria?
I think we have to look at it in a broader sense. One, at multi lateral level, the trade volume is about $150 billion am talking about the D8 countries. At bilateral level, what Nigeria has been offering Pakistan, one is the market. Nigeria has huge market potentials and if you capture Nigerian market you capture the entire African market. If they have the technology and we have the resources we can collaborate to produce and capture the Nigerian market instead of importing goods into Nigeria. Secondly, Nigeria is rich in oil and gas and Pakistan is facing serious energy crisis even though they produced 23,000 mega watts of electricity but because of industrialization they require a lot of energy and that is another area we offer incentive of opportunity to Pakistan. Again Pakistan is interested in our palm oil, we were exporting cotton sometimes back to feed the textile industries but as you know cotton production swindled as a result of our concentration on mono commodity which is oil. They are interested in our hide and skin and our clay. So if we can join hands it will be a win win situation for both countries.
Aside having a joint textile factory to produce police uniforms and other materials and training of Nigerian military officers, in what other way can Pakistan assist Nigeria in tackling insurgency and internal insecurity?  
Pakistan donated some communication equipments recently to the Nigerian police. As you know policing, maintenance of security to a large extent will also depend on how effective communication network is because communication is fundamental to intelligence. Their ability to respond to an emergency situation will depend on how effective their communication is. The equipments would be tested and see. They will also install them free of charge and they have offered free training on use already. I believe that the issue of keeping the Nigerian police sourcing, efficient and cheaper communication equipments for them will go a long way in assisting them in the fight against insurgency, crime and criminality in the country.
What is the trade volume between Nigeria and Pakistan now?     
Prior to my going there the trade volume was just $100 million. Now if you recall last year between the month of August and September, we brought 42 industrialists to Nigeria and we toured about seven states and as a result of various activities now we have reached about $500 million and this will be nothing compare to when the joint commission meeting takes off then if it cumulate and it became possible for the president to lead the high delegation from Pakistan to Nigeria, then we will be looking at billions of dollars investments in the near future.
How soon can the bilateral air service agreement be achieved?
Bilateral air service agreement is not a major impediment as such to trade and investment like narratives of the media in terms of insecurity that is prevalent in both countries. That has created a psychological fear and apprehension in people that make people find it difficult to travel but let me say this, the bilateral air service agreement will only enhance easy movement of people and people to people contact and reduce the stress associated with long distance travelling. It will also create easy movement of goods and services. From all indications it is not only the BASA but a lot of agreements that have not been in place are the major impediment. For instance, we don’t have investment preferential agreement, none for agriculture and textile investment and so on. It is very difficult when you are operating and you do not have such agreement in place and we have taken a bold step as a result of the transformation agenda of the present administration that anchors economic and citizen diplomacy as the foreign policy thrust of Nigeria and that has now open up the doors for a robust engagement between us and the countries we are serving.
What about the Nigerian community in Pakistan, how are they doing?      
There are about 700 Nigerians living in Pakistan some of them are married to Pakistani and they are engaged in mostly in textile industry and as well exporting Nigeria palm oil to Pakistan, hide and skin and some other raw agricultural produce. Of course in any society we have the good, bad and the ugly, we have about 30 Nigerians serving in various prisons in Pakistan. Some are cases of 419 and narcotics and we have been using the leaders of various Nigerian communities to admonish them on the need for them to be good ambassadors of their country and so far so good, it has minimize the incidences of Nigerians been arrested in Pakistan.