The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha on Thursday lamented that only 4,000km of Nigeria’s 10,000km waterways is navigable. The SGF stated this at the Nigeria – Ukraine Trade and Investment Roundtable held in Abuja. He sought the cooperation of the Ukrainian Government to enable the Federal Government develop its waterways in order to reduce the pressure on the Nigerian roads.
“Nigeria has 10,000km waterways and 4,000km is navigable. I believe that if the waterway is fully developed, it can take away pressure from our roads as a bulk of our cargoes can go on our waterways. The visit came at a time Nigeria is pursuing economic growth that will aid its vision of being among top 20 economies in the world.
As at November last year, trade volume between Nigeria and Ukraine was $93.3m which was a decrease by four percent in 2016. With your visit, we hope the volume of trade would increase in 2018,” he added.
Speaking also, the Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, Natalia Mykolska, described Nigeria as a long-standing friend of Ukraine. She noted that Nigerian students in Ukraine are best ambassadors for both countries. She assured of her country's cooperation in the area of economy.
“Nigeria is a strategic partner, we believe trade is not a one-way street, we need to think of import, export and joint cooperation
