Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday in Abuja said that Nigeria remains a major trading partner with Canada in Africa.

Osinbajo said this at the Nigeria-Canada Investment Summit 2019 with the theme: Reaching Greater Heights. He added that Nigeria was one of the 10 reforming economies in the world, adding that the summit focuses on the six major sectors of the country’s economy.

“The six sectors listed in the summit namely: Education, Healthcare, Mining, Power, Infrastructure, and Agriculture, are the crucial sectors and are very important for Nigeria’s economy.

“We encourage all our partners to maximise all the platforms provided and prospects available for businesses to prosper. Our trade and investment sector in Nigeria has remained a major trading partner to Canada in Africa.

“Canada import includes minerals, fuel, cocoa, rubber and many more while it exports vehicles equipment, manufacturing equipment, and software.

“We have also increased double taxation agreement in 1999; we expect our foreign investment and promotion to be concluded by both countries as early as possible in 2020. However, the next few years promise to be exciting for businesses in Nigeria,’’ Osinbajo said.

He urged all visitors and friends of Nigeria to take time to visit the city of Abuja, test “Our Suya and most importantly, our Nigerian Jollof rice”.

Mr. Tarik Khan, the Director-General, West, and Central African Global Affairs Canada, said Nigeria remains the largest trade and investment partner to Canada in Sub-Sahara Africa. He said his priority was to promote trade and investment in the continent, especially in Sub-Sahara Africa, adding that Nigeria is the largest investor in Canada from the region.

“As far as our investment is concerned in 2018, Canadian direct investment in Nigeria reported 500 million Canadian dollars, Nigerian represent an attractive market in business services as the third-largest export market in Africa.

“The potential for growth as the Excellency mentioned is significant, in areas of technology, ICTs, Agriculture, Creative Industries, Aviation, Education and Technical Vocational Training in our communities’ projects.

“I am convinced that Nigeria is also an important future market that holds untapped opportunities for Canadian companies, and its young dynamic entrepreneurial population has a natural capability towards innovation.

“Nigerian recent decision to join the African continental free trade area and to see greater economic integration with its neighbours, we only expect more opportunities to emerge. Innovation is the key to our common future as we know in this industrial revolution and building human capacity in the growth sector of the future is what we need to aim,’’ he said.

He said that Canada has introduced several policies that favour greater trade and investment in emerging markets like Nigeria in recent years.

“With the shifting wind of international trade, our government has recognised the need that our export and investment links are more diversified.

“For this reason, we have launched our trade diversification strategy. Canada is committed to investing 1.1 billion dollars to help Canadian businesses access new markets with the objectives of increasing international exports by 50 percent by the year 2025,’’ he said.