Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday, said current global crises, including energy crisis, climate change and the Ukrainian conflict, have presented an opportunity for developing countries to refocus their trade and energy priorities in favour of their peoples.
The Vice President spoke in his office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, when he received in audience, the Nigerian-born Secretary General of the D-8 Organisation, Ambassador Isiaka A. Imam.
Nigeria is a member of the D-8 which is an organisation for development cooperation among eight developing countries, comprising Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey.
Speaking on the need for closer ties among developing countries such as those in the D-8, Osinbajo said, “this is a very important time for member countries to really focus on the critical issues – trade and energy. But trade in particular, there is a need for greater trade engagements.”
He noted that Nigeria offers great prospects for expanding trade among the D-8 members, noting that “what we all really need to do is to look at how to use Nigeria as a point where you take off from the AfCTA and some kind of entry way into the AfCTA.
According to a statement issued by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, the Vice President said “we think that Nigeria will be able to coordinate the trade routes and opportunities within the AfCTA. For instance, we are very prominent already in banking services all over Africa. I think that is one of the many important areas that we must look at.”
The Vice President said “one of the easiest ways of expanding trade routes is really from the services perspective, especially financial services. And I see that the D-8 is trying to build a payment system. I think that this is one area that we can, very quickly, move things along. This is one of the areas you may be looking at, especially engaging Nigerian banks to see in which ways they can function within the AfCTA and all our partners and member countries of the D-8.”
On Nigeria’s advocacy for a just transition to net zero, the VP urged the D-8 to join in the campaign, noting that “we are at a point where we are arguing about the role of gas in this whole transition to net zero. Whether we can, as it is being proposed by the wealthier countries, dispense with gas and use more renewables. But we, of course, are pushing back and saying, we must continue to use gas.”
According to him, “our advocacy in the area of energy access is an important consideration in the whole campaign towards net zero. It is possible for the D-8 to take it up because all our countries are faced with more or less the same sort of challenges.”
“Our advocacy for consideration of more investments in fossil fuels especially gas (for us) is one that we think can also be taken up by the D-8.”
Commending the work done by the Organization in the area of social protection and health, especially with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the VP said “I thought that was an excellent opportunity to bring countries together to look at the common problems,” adding that “we shouldn’t lose the platform that was created especially in addressing public health challenges like getting vaccines. Even for local manufacture of drugs, we have to develop that capacity.
“As we saw with the COVID pandemic, we can actually work together, it is an excellent opportunity to develop the collaboration even further,” the Vice President added.
Prof. Osinbajo also commended the renewed vigor by the present secretariat of the D-8 to give it a new direction and create better opportunities that will benefit member countries.
In his remarks, Amb. Imam said there is a deliberate effort to reinvigorate trade among member countries in the new direction of the D-8, especially improving trade volumes from $121 billion to a new target of about $500 billion by 2030.
He added that plans were underway to establish a D-8 MSME Centre in Abuja as part of efforts to boost trade by building capacity among MSMEs in member countries, noting that the Centre, if realized, “will be a game-changer for members to enhance the capacity and training of MSMEs in branding and quality control.”
The Secretary General was accompanied on the visit to the Presidential Villa by the Organization’s Director of External Relations, Mr Punjul Nugraha.