EUROPEAN economic giant, Germany, has pledged to assist Nigeria to develop her manufacturing and agro-allied sectors, as plans have been concluded for the entry of more German companies into Nigerian business environment.Already, the volume of trade between the two countries hit 100 billion euro last year, with Nigeria now emerging the business hub for many European countries.Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, International Economic Affairs, German Chambers of Industry and Commerce network, Dr. Volker Treier, made this disclosure at the 30th anniversary of German Industry and Commerce in Nigeria, on Tuesday night in Lagos.He pointed out that the European Union (EU) debit crisis has opened investment opportunities for Nigeria, as countries now consider the West African country as the hub for investment opportunities.Specifically, he said the German investors that came to Nigeria to evaluate areas of investment opportunities few months back are ready to invest billions of Euro into the nation's manufacturing and agro-allied sectors.The investment, he said was part of his country's to further strengthen her economic tie with Africa's most populous country.'I can confirm that your country is really full of investment opportunities and full of challenges. And as we have seen today, there are investment potentials in all the various sectors here. So, Nigeria is the place to be for investment opportunities.'The other place, Europe, where I come from is facing some substantial challenges. We have European debt crisis. We have public discussion debate about Euro debt. We have challenges about competitiveness among some EU countries. We know we have a lot of homework to do in EU for our economies to bounce back,' Treier said.He explained that EU debt crisis has affected Germany's economic reform, which was the reason his country was intensifying efforts to strengthen her economic linkages with other world economies in which Nigeria was one of them.'Germany economic reform has in one way or the other been affected by the EU crisis. And this is why we are intensifying our home work to boost our economic linkages with power house of the world economies. And my two days here has show that Nigeria is indeed one of the power houses in this world and we pledge to make our bilateral relationship look stronger than before,' he added.According to him, the German government has identified Nigeria as her trade investment destination in Africa where it hopes to leapfrog her investments in the continent, adding that Nigeria remains the European giant's second most important trading partner in Sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa in the continent.'There are many reasons why Nigeria stands out as an interesting emerging markets, not only for the German private sector, but Europe and the world as a whole. Nigeria, as a home for German investors, is because its Germany's second most important trading partner in Africa. In 2011, Germany exported goods/services to Nigeria more than 100 billion Euro, why the value of Nigeria's goods to Germany was 1.2 billion Euro. Also about 60 German companies are already present here and I promise, we will intensify our approach to see more German companies' presence in Nigeria.In his own opening speech at the occasion, President of Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Nigeria, Andre Ronne said that the German government would continue to strengthen her economic tie with Nigeria.'It's a fruitful cooperation to see that some of our companies here in Nigeria are ready to partner other companies with like minds even, they intend to buy more manufacturing companies here. They intend to cooperate with us, with you and with the local authorities, because Nigeria is African biggest economy with a gross domestic product of $450 billion this year.''Indeed, the country is among the seven biggest oil producing countries in the world. Also, Nigeria has oil reserve of about $45 billion, while it has an annual growth of remarkable seven or eight per cent per year. I think the future of global economy belong to Nigeria,' Ronne said.
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