R?zanur Meral, the president of key Turkish business group the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) has said the trade volume between Turkey and Nigeria should increase more than twofold as soon as possible to over $2 billion from last year’s figure of $900 million.

Speaking at the TUSKON-organized Turkey-Nigeria Trade and Investment Forum that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan attended together with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek on Thursday in ?stanbul, Meral said most of the products Nigeria needs today are manufactured by Turkey “at an equal quality but for lower prices than in Europe” and added that “there is potential to swiftly increase the trade volume between the two countries to $2 billion.”

In that regard, he underlined that Turkey has become the world’s 16th and Europe’s sixth largest economy thanks to the speedy growth performance it has achieved — particularly in the past decade. In his speech Meral also pointed to Nigeria’s growing economic importance for the entire world with its estimated population of over 150 million and rich oil, natural gas and various mineral reserves. He said Turkish businessmen are aware the western African nation is one of the most important economies on the continent. “As TUSKON and Turkish businessmen, we believe that Nigeria will continue to have a stable and growing economy in the coming years under President Jonathan’s leadership. We hope that economic relations between Turkey and Nigeria will develop while focusing on trade and investments and that we contribute to that end. This meeting is an important contribution to improving the relationship between the business worlds of the two countries,” he said. Yesterday, there were over 1,000 meetings between Turkish and Nigerian businesspeople. In his speech, Meral also drew attention to Turkey’s growing construction sector, which has recently reached a total business volume of $35 billion in Africa. The TUSKON president asked the Nigerian leadership to provide more opportunities to Turkish contractors, who he believes can make substantial contributions to the country’s economy. Turkish businessmen are mainly active in the fields of construction, machinery, chemicals, furniture, ready-wear and tourism in Nigeria, Meral noted.

Nigerian President Jonathan said the TUSKON forum is an opportunity for building new business relations as well as for inviting Turkish businessmen to come and invest in Nigeria. “I will keep my address very short. There is a business environment that is about to explode in Nigeria, and you should come here, too. We have the best business opportunities for you,” he said. “[In one of its reports] Goldman Sachs said Nigeria will become a large economy after Brazil, Russia, China and India. Indeed, we keep growing and implementing a long-term economic transition policy. Nigeria will become one of the 20 largest economies of the world by 2020. That is our target. We have [taken the necessary steps] to that end,” he said, drawing attention to the 20 percent economic growth the country has achieved in the last five years. Following his speech Meral gave the visiting president a picture of ?stanbul’s famous Maiden Tower as a gift.

Çiçek addressed Turkish and Nigerian businesspeople during yesterday’s forum, too. He said: “Africa’s heart and linchpin is Nigeria. We are behind and vouch for our businessmen. I hope they will have the opportunity to serve as if they were home.” He also underlined that TUSKON’s forum is very important and gained further meaning with Jonathan’s presence. “This visit is a supremely important and historic visit for us,” Çiçek added.

Jonathan came to visit Turkey on Wednesday and met with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gül, in Ankara as well. The Nigerian president also paid a visit to a Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOK?) construction site in Ankara’s Eryaman district on Wednesday and asked TOK? to come and build housing projects in Nigeria as well.

News/Photo Source: Today’s Zaman Daily Online.