The European Union (EU) has announced it will prioritise Northern Nigeria, youths, and migration to elevate its bilateral partnership with the country.
The EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, His Excellency Gautier Mignot, made this known at a media luncheon in Abuja.
Mignot said the decision to focus on northern Nigeria is because the area has a more significant number of people in need and a higher number of activities by non-state groups. These notwithstanding, north Nigeria, he acknowledged, has a strong potential for entrepreneurship and vibrant communities that will aid in the area‘s development.
He said the EU has integrated opportunities for Nigerian youths in its programmes, particularly in the digital and energy industries, to support youth employment and development.
“We want to have dimensions and programmes of vocational training for young people or opportunities for startups in the digital world.
“We want to also focus on women and develop people-to-people contact. We hope, in the future, to develop talent partnerships.”
Mignot further noted the regional body’s intention to develop a migration partnership with Nigeria to address various migration issues, such as asylum, trafficking, and illegal migrants.
The partnership will be based on the new and soon-to-be-implemented legislation and pact developed by the union last year, which focuses on protecting migrants’ rights.
He noted that while Europe and the European economy need migrants, it reserves the right to decide who enters or legally resides therein, not smugglers.
Thus, it is open to working with Nigeria on best practices to fight human traffickers who deploy illegal migrants as human slaves both in EU countries or on the way to other countries.
“For this, we want to engage with countries of origin and transit. This is what we will be doing and continue to do, particularly with Nigeria as a nation, and we will look at all aspects of the issue and see how we can have a win-win partnership on this. It is also in Nigeria‘s interest to manage who is needed. This is something we have a basis for agreement.”
Presently, the EU’s latest goal is to upgrade its partnership with Nigeria in trade, green, and digital economy to positively impact the Nigerian population.
Mignot, however, noted that to ensure a balanced trade exchange between Nigeria and the EU, mainly the export of standardised agro-products from Nigeria to the EU region (which thus far had often been rejected as substandard) is one the union can take into consideration via its cooperation with Nigeria.
It is the same as the EU’s cooperation with Nigerian cocoa value chains to meet the new deforestation standards that will be implemented in 2026.
“We would very much welcome a diversification of trade with Nigeria. This is one of the issues that we could discuss during our dialogue on trade and investment, and in many cases, the question is that there are standards in the EU, and there are expectations by consumers that need to be met.
“This is something that we have taken into consideration in our cooperation. We can try to help some agro-value chains to meet European standards.
“Certainly (alongside) efforts to be made by Nigerian authorities and industries to facilitate entry (of their products) into the European market,” concluded Mignot.
