– Infrastructure Development Summit Opens in Washington, DC.
THE value of trade between Nigeria and the United States of America has taken a sixty percent jump in the last two years, says the Corporate Council on Africa, even as it has initiated a powerful lobby for the extension of the Africa Opportunity Growth Act after it was signed into law twelve years ago by former President Bill Clinton.
Sources at the Council, privy to information from their Nigerian embassy contacts in Washington DC, told sharpedgenews.com that prior to the coming of the current Nigerian ambassador to the US, Prof. Ade Adefuye, the trade volume between the United States and Nigeria stood at approximately $23 billion. But total trade deals between the two countries have now appreciated to a growth of about $39 billion.
Sources on both sides ascribe the development to the Goodluck Jonathan Administration’s dynamic policy of “economic diplomacy” aimed at ensuring that Nigeria covers grounds that were lost in the years when the country was identified as a pariah because of military dictatorship.
Next week in Washington DC, the Corporate Council on Africa will collaborate with Nigeria to have an infrastructural development summit. Nigeria’s minister for works, Architect Mike Onolinime, is billed to coordinate the event that would hold from Wednesday October 10 to Thursday, October 11. Vice President Namadi Sambo is expected to represent President Goodluck Jonathan as Guest of Honor.
The federal executive council meeting in Nigeria next week may be put on old as at least ten ministers and about six governors would be in attendance at the Washington event.
A similar summit on agriculture and another one on power gave a major boost to the country’s transformational plan as enumerated by President Jonathan. The US Import-Export Bank pledged a $1.5 billion guarantee for prospects.