Switzerland eager for Nigerian exports – Hodel

How long have you been in Nigeria and what is your experience like serving in the country?It is over one year now and then I found a fascinating country, very interesting to work in. I have been to 21 of the 36 States of the country. I have also very good team here. I have […]

How long have you been in Nigeria and what is your experience like serving in the country?
It is over one year now and then I found a fascinating country, very interesting to work in. I have been to 21 of the 36 States of the country. I have also very good team here. I have not yet found the difference between the regions and I like green vegetable with palm oil. You have good chicken and fish. I go to Abacha Barracks to eat fish. I was given a chieftaincy title in Abia State, the Eze Enyi 1st of Umuokogbuo Isiukwuato in the Northern part of Umuahia.
What is the level of Switzerland-Nigeria bilateral relations?
I can describe it as a very good, we have many contacts and not only that they are very good and friendly but are rapidly increasing also because we have since 2011 and partly in 2012, had many institutional dialogues where we met on regular basis sometimes here or in Switzerland. The most important one is the political dialogue where we meet once a year at a state secretary or permanent secretary level and we had migration dialogue in 2011 when we had a joint technical committee that now meets twice a year, one in Nigeria and the other in Switzerland. We also have human rights dialogue which the head of delegation here is also the permanent secretary while Switzerland special envoy on human rights is the head of the delegation. They have a lot of projects going on in all these dialogues creating a lot of visitors coming and lots of Nigerian visitors to Geneva in the United Nations. Last, Nigeria also reactivated the embassy in Bonn because the ambassador to Geneva has also been the ambassador in Bonn which of course makes our relations much better and easier.
You said there are projects going on Nigeria by Switzerland, can you mention them and their locations?
Some projects are not linked to location. What I mean is cooperation projects, development cooperation is active but of course not in the whole world. This embassy is also in charge of our relations to Niger and Chad, these are the countries we have such programmes but in Nigeria we don’t. But in countries where we think we could do cooperation projects, the embassy has a small credit for what we call small scale projects and this also is an additional item of cooperation to dialogue cases. This year we financed works, we helped schools and we have project for prison inmates, we have helped a hospital in Benue State, we have an orphanage in Enugu, we finance a fish pond and poultry farm where they can take care of animals and also to sell the products to finance some people’s living expenses. These are the so called small scale projects we have. In the field of migration we have several projects as well. Last week we finalised the train the trainers together with IOM on body guards, we have the police exchange which is a very successful project where Nigerian police and officers from the NDLEA recently visited Switzerland showing very good image of the Nigerian police and changing the negative perception about Nigeria. The project shows them that there are positive things about Nigeria. Next year, the Swiss police will also come to Nigeria for the first time and will work on the streets with the Nigeria police. We also have projects for returnees, education projects. They can also get money to open some businesses but we are now looking at opening mechanical shops that people can go and learn mechanic in Nigeria. Some of the projects cannot be located because they are not traditional physical developmental projects. Our cooperation is purely bilateral, we show movies, organise concerts and we also have a good cooperation at the international fora in New York and Geneva.
Sometimes back Switzerland returned some money to Nigeria previously kept by Nigeria’s former leader late General Sanni Abacha, is there still more of such money in Swiss banks?
No, we have gone to all the Swiss banks to communicate what they had with them but communicated the $750million (700 Swiss francs). Everything has been given back to Nigeria. Nowadays, there is no more money but I know that there were some press reports that said there may be money in some other countries but no any more money in Switzerland.
The Swiss government also said then that they have a case against the son of the former head of state, Muhammed, how far with that case?
The case is still going on and I think the case against him over participation in organised crime before the justice in Geneva at the federal court of Justice. It is still an on-going case, I cannot say much on that.
 Apart from late General Sanni Abacha, is there any other Nigerian in the past or now that has money in Swiss bank who was indicted?
If you asked me probably a few years ago I would have not been able to respond to the issue but now there are new measures to prevent such. I think and am sure that there are no such cases. There are so many changes to prevent any illegal money in the banks, they can still have an account but we do not want illegal money and the banks must know who their customers are. This issue of looted money in Swiss banks is almost impossible now. And also because people know that Swiss banks are not any more looking for such kind of money they don’t try to bring it in from elsewhere.
Recently, your country announced that it would grant asylum to some Syrians because of the crisis in that country, what do you think will be the effect of this on your country’s security and economy?
I don’t see any link between giving asylum to people and terrorism because those people will be selected and it is really for those who need it, mostly women and children. All the 500 people will be selected. They are given a promise to live temporarily in Switzerland.     
Terrorism has become a global phenomenon confronting most countries of the world including Nigeria, what is Switzerland’s experience in this regard?
There is a lot of controls at the borders and airports. We try to find out those people coming into the country but fortunately up till now we have been safe from big terrorist attacks. Terrorism also has another element and that is money laundering which is also done by such groups. I gave a speech on that last year when GIABA organised a conference on money laundering and terrorism. And we also have many policies on fighting terrorism in the financial field. The most important thing I can say here is that already our financial sector is fighting against organised crime and terrorism. There are no anonymous accounts which are run by some people to perpetrate evil. Also we have laws against money laundering. Switzerland is a country which has given back most of the illicit money to the rightful owners, more than 1.7 billion franc already. We also have what we do to identify clients who try to deposit money that the bank suspects to be illicit. The bank has to look for proof. That is the client has to prove that the money is not an illicit one before such person can open an account.     
What is the volume of trade between Nigeria and your country?
Yes, the volume of Switzerland’s bilateral trade reached 716 million Swiss Franc in 2012 according to provisional figures from the Swiss federal customs administration. Nigeria exports much more to Switzerland but unfortunately, Nigeria’s export which is about $500 million is mostly oil or exclusively of hydrocarbons, of course we would like to see Nigeria exporting manufactured goods. Our import to Nigeria last year was 222 million Swiss Franc and these were mostly machinery, pharmaceuticals, beauty products, detergents, wrist watches, mining, clothing and textiles. Nigeria absorbed 7% of Swiss exports to the African continent and Nigeria was the fifth most important destination for Swiss exports to Africa in 2012 after South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. On the other hand, Nigeria supplied 13% of Swiss imports from this part of the world. Nigerian exports were surpassed only by Libya and South Africa while Algeria and Morocco round up the top five African exporters to Switzerland.
Do you have Nigerians in Swiss prisons?
There are about 4000 Nigerians living in Switzerland and of course we have some of them but I don’t know their numbers. Prisoner’s rights are protected in Switzerland because their families are not there. We respect their rights but some are mostly there because of drug trafficking. No any prison transfer agreement between both countries. Nigerian citizens that are convicted for any offence in Switzerland serve their jail terms there.