Turkish ambassador to Nigeria, Mehmet Poroy, says Türkiye intends to scale up its current trade volume of $2 billion with Nigeria to $5 billion.

According to the Turkish envoy, during the recent visit of President Bola Tinubu to Türkiye, agreements were signed aimed at deepening Turkish-Nigerian relations in various fields.

Speaking on Tuesday during a courtesy call to the News Agency of Nigeria’s managing director, Ali Ali, Mr Poroy described trade and investment as “the second most important part of Turkish-Nigeria relations”.

Mr Poroy said that following the agreements signed, Türkiye was now working to scale up its investment portfolios in Nigeria to hit the $5 billion trade volume target.

“As you know, the two Presidents have agreed to a bilateral trade of $5 billion. This is the target we will work on. One of the tools that we will use is the joint declaration signed between the two ministers of trade. We will use it to establish a joint economic and trade council. So when this joint council becomes operational, we will discuss the possibilities of our trade,” he said.

The Turkish envoy disclosed that Türkiye already has about $400 million in investments in Abuja alone, in addition to some of its major companies operating in the southern part of Nigeria.

He also disclosed that Turkey’s total investment in Africa currently stood at about $10 billion, adding that there was a need to bolster bilateral trade with Nigeria, given its huge potential.

The ambassador said that, in liaison with authorities in Turkey, he was already facilitating the procedures for obtaining Turkish visas, so that businesspeople on both sides could obtain them seamlessly.

“Before coming here, I heard that people were complaining about the Turkish visa. Not only for Nigerian business people, but Turkish business people, who also need to come here in an easier way. They have also difficulties, so we are in discussion to see how we can further facilitate people-to-people contact,” he said.

Mr Poroy said the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency would soon open an office in Abuja to further expand Türkiye’s cooperation with Nigeria in education, healthcare, and other areas.

He said that Turkish Airlines, with seven flights a week from Abuja to Istanbul, and four to five flights a week from Abuja to Istanbul, is essential for Turkish-Nigeria trade.

(NAN)