As a means of improving intra-regional trade, Nigeria and Morocco are exploring ways of enhancing their trade relations by focusing on opportunities in renewable energy resources, oil and Gas and Agriculture.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian and Moroccan governments had earlier this year signed three agreements, in Rabat, Morocco which included a regional gas pipeline that will see Nigeria providing gas to countries in the West Africa sub-region that extending all the way to Morocco and Europe.
OCP Policy Centre, a think tank which participated at the just concluded 24th Nigeria Economic Summitโ-NES#24 are pushing for the expansion of the trade relations between Nigeria and Morocco beyond the investments in the Gas Pipeline infrastructure.
The Nigeria/Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) designed to be 5,66km long, will reduce gas flaring in Nigeria and encourage diversification of energy resources in the country while cutting down poverty through the creation of more job opportunities.
Karim El Aynaoui, Managing Director of OCP Policy Centre during panel discussions on Morocco-Nigeria relations said โthe Pipeline has a huge role to play beyond fertilizer and Gas. Remember it would pass several countries and there are already discussions around clean energy adoption providing electricity to the countries that the Gas pipeline would pass through.โ
โAccording to him, โthere are opportunities in renewable energy and and oil and Gas which we have already commenced on work with the Nigerian government. There are also training exchange programmes to build the capacity of farmers through the Bank of Agriculture. We are producing solar panels and there are lots of progress we have made on the renewable energy to expand opportunities of electricity in Nigeriaโ
He also said Morocco was assisting Nigeria in attracting investments noting that โpredictable macro-economic environment enhances opportunities for attracting investors.โ
During his contribution at the panel session, Doyin Salami, CEO of Kainos Edge consulting Limited said โthe federal government must haveโ a shared vision on the specific benefits it Is working to harvest from the Kingdom of Morocco.โ
โNigeria must be able to unleash the power of the huge economic size by attracting the benefits of the countries willing to do business with itโ he said.
In his intervention, Segun Adaju, said the renewable energy association of Nigeria was already working towards ensuring that by 2040, 40% of energy usage in Nigeria would be sourced through renewable energy sources. We would be engaging the Moroccan representatives in Nigeria on the possible ways of โexploring opportunities in the renewable energy sector. To harvest more benefits in the renewable energy sector, we must consider generating power from solar and selling to the grid.
These are the opportunities that we must keep exploring at all timesโ he said.
