Nigeria’s Formal Agreement on Agro-Industrial Park with the Netherlands

News site ngrguardiannews reported that the Netherlands and the Federal Government of Nigeria are planning to build an agro-industrial park under a seal pact held in The Hague, Netherlands.

Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Industry (Trade and Investment) of Nigeria and Netherlands Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen met and discussed options to benefit  and reinforce the economic partnership of both countries; hence, they came up with the project.

Aganga believes that the Netherlands has a well developed food processing industry and the largest producers and exporters of good. “This, combined with the availability of raw materials and the large market in Nigeria, will give rise to a successful partnership on the establishment of an industrial zone on food processing in Nigeria,” Aganga said. He also emphasized that the two countries have to work in partnership to address the problems in trading.

Ploumen announced that the Netherlands is planning to generate a growth fund worth €700 million to assist in SME investments in growth areas. She also approved the Federal Government‘s proposal to include Nigeria in the plan.

Furthermore, it was decided in the joint project that Nigerian SMES may access the growth fund for business expansion and investment in important, growing sectors. The fund will be made available in January.