By Adesina Wahab
Rich countries should not approach trade with Africa as a game of Minecraft in which they secure supplies of natural resources, but rather as a relationship based on mutual respect and the need for Africa to develop, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, has said.
Tuggar also said that Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and a crude oil exporter with chronic problems including a huge power deficit, was less affected by U.S. trade tariffs than other countries and was focused on a range of trading partners, according to a report by The Reuters Daily Briefing Newsletter.
“Sometimes it’s like the game Minecraft: There’s oil, there’s gas, there’s critical minerals, rare earths. We put a bit of this, we invest in this. No, that’s not the way it goes,” Tuggar told the Reuters NEXT Gulf summit in Abu Dhabi.
“The engagement should be based on mutual respect, based on shared interests and based on the fact that Africa needs to develop. If it doesn’t develop, we continue to deal with irregular migration, with all these other challenges.”
The popular video game Minecraft involves players exploring a 3D world made of cubes in which they can mine materials, craft tools and build structures.
Tuggar said Nigeria was better placed than some other countries to withstand U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs policy, which imposes a 15% levy on goods from Nigeria including oil and gas.
He cited Nigeria’s huge internal market with a population of 230 million, expected to grow to 400 million by 2050, and its relationships with other trading partners such as China, India.
Asked about measures to create jobs and boost investment, Tuggar pointed to the stabilisation of the exchange rate and renewed availability of foreign exchange after years of crisis.
He also mentioned tax cuts, a power reform that decouples different components of the sector to make it easier to invest, and feed-in tariffs for renewable energy.
Successive Nigerian governments have talked for decades about improving the power supply across the vast nation, with limited improvement on the ground, which investors cite as one of the main obstacles to doing business in the country.
Four in 10 Nigerians do not have access to electricity, according to the World Bank, while in big cities power cuts lasting hours or days on end are a daily reality. Those who can afford to rely on noisy, polluting diesel generators do get by.
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