Ambassador Wants Brazilian-Nigerian Trade Revived After 12 Years
Francisco Luz, the Consul General of Brazil in Nigeria, says there is need to resuscitate the bilateral trade between his country and Nigeria to the levels reached 12 years ago.
He said that Brazilian-Nigerian bilateral trade had reached $11 billion 12 year ago and that for many decades Nigeria was the country’s biggest economy and trade partner in Africa.
“Nigeria used to be an important, but not top 10 exporter of fertiliser to Brazil.”
Luz said this at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Nigerian-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NBCCI) on Tuesday, while addressing some of the concerns of the chamber.
According to Luz, the embassy will be organising a business forum to bring together the Nigerian business community to a dialogue as it tries to shake-up the business relationship a bit after about two years of relative inactivity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that currently, Brazilian-Nigeria bilateral trade relation was still locked on sugar from Brazil and urea (fertiliser) from Nigeria.
“It is still in the same pattern of trade. Nigeria mostly imports sugar from Brazil and we import urea from Nigeria.
“I think we must look into the future and see what we can do. That is why I have invited the chamber to be present at the event”, urging the NBCCI to present itself as the hub for Nigerian businesses to get into the Brazilian market.
“I think agriculture will replace, in the future, what oil and sugar are now. The idea is stop importing sugar from Brazil and bringing machines here (Nigeria) for the production of sugar,” he said.
The Brazilian ambassador said that sugar was not only used for food, but also one of those things the country used for generating electricity and fuel, maintaining that Brazil uses 250 sugar mills to generate almost 20,000 megawatts of electricity.
He said that the current state of the international economy provided leverage and “we must look for new partners to change our ways of seeing Africa”.
“Africa has to be seen as the continent of the future and where the new business will come,” he said.
On the need to have a direct travel link to Brazil, whether through ship or flight, Luz said he was not optimistic and hinted that all the documents to make it work were ready.
“We have the agreements, unfortunately Brazil doesn’t have a national carrier flight.
“The companies that are now operating in the Brazilian market have only one flight to Africa.
“I think Brazilian companies do not see the possibility in the short to medium terms, maybe in the long term they will.”
On visa application and approval, the ambassador said the processes had greatly improved.
“On till the 30th of June, we have issued 1,600 visas from January to June,” the second half of the year is always higher, So, we expect it to be around 4,000.”
Luz, however, lamented that about 30 per cent of visa applicants had fake documents.
The President of NBCCI, Alexander Okafor, said Brazil remained another lofty market for Nigerians to fully penetrate.
“If not because of the cut-off links between Brazil and Nigeria, the products from Brazil are as good as what you get from America and any other part of the world; the prices are relatively the same.
“Let us take this advantage to enter the market. You get any product from Brazil, it is as good as you are getting it from America.”
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