Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma will address the South Africa-Nigeria Business Forum today, as he spends his second day in Nigeria.
The President is accompanied by a business delegation and members of Cabinet. He arrived in Nigeria on Tuesday. President Zuma met his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari for bilateral talks before addressing the National Assembly.
President Zuma said while he was happy that the bilateral economic relations between the two countries have significantly improved in the last 16 years -- as evidenced by the growing bilateral trade figures and investment -- there is room for greater business-to-business engagements, particularly in the areas Nigeria has identified as potential growth sectors.
These include the diversification of the economy through electricity generation and supply, agriculture and agro-processing, tourism development, including the hospitality sector, mining, banking, infrastructure development, aviation, manufacturing and the automotive sector.
“We must strive for the diversification of our economies so as to cast the net wide enough to create more job opportunities for our people to improve their living conditions and grow our economies through domestic resources,” President Zuma told the National Assembly.
He said the two powerhouses of Africa would break away from the colonial legacy that turned Africa into providers of primary commodities and recipients of processed goods.
“This diversification will go further to improve the impact that Africa can have in the global economy and to reconfigure the terms of trade.”
The two sides must also strive to bring manufacturing plants closer to the sources of raw materials. President Zuma said South Africa and Nigeria can complement each other to achieve this.
“The current global economic climate, as the previous global economic crisis, has exposed the vulnerability of our economies and currencies and thus calls for concerted efforts toward South-South and intra-African cooperation.
“Economic cooperation between our two countries can therefore serve as the bedrock of the continent's economic cooperation and intra-African trade. This is the kind of leadership Africa expects South Africa and Nigeria to provide,” he said.
He said South Africa's solid minerals mining experience can contribute to solid minerals exploration in Nigeria.
“Our experience in electricity generation can also be tapped into to assist in Nigeria's electricity generation, to name but a few,” he said, adding it was also important for the two sides to improve people to people linkages.
At the global sphere, the two countries share a common vision on the need for the reform of multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, particularly the UN Security Council.
In this regard, President Zuma said Nigeria and South Africa must work in order to achieve a more just and equal world while advancing continental integration and transformation, informed by the African Union's Constitutive Act.
“We need to unite and work together on the issues of peace and security. This should include bringing into operation the standby forces and their capacitation. We commit ourselves to playing our part to achieve this,” said President Zuma. - SAnews.gov.za
