Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said the current trend in the global economy, climate change, and the Ukrainian conflict present opportunities for closer ties among developing economies, especially in refocusing attention on trade and energy access for the benefit of the people.

Osinbajo said this when he received the Secretary General of the D-8 Organisation, Ambassador Isiaka Imam, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday.

Nigeria is a member of the D-8 which is an organisation for development cooperation among eight developing countries comprising Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Turkey.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, the Vice President, while speaking on the need for closer ties among developing countries such as those in the D-8 said: “This is a very important time for member countries to really focus on the critical issues – trade and energy. But trade in particular, there is a need for greater trade engagements.”

Osinbajo stated that Nigeria offers a great prospect for expanding trade among the D-8 members, saying: “What we all really need to do is to look at how to use Nigeria as a point where you take off from to the AfCTA and some kind of entryway into the AfCTA.

READ ALSO: EFCC arrests ex-banker, recovers $470,000 from his apartment

“We think that Nigeria will be able to coordinate the trade routes and opportunities within the AfCTA. For instance, we are very prominent already in banking services all over Africa. I think that is one of the many important areas that we must look at.

“One of the easiest ways of expanding trade routes is really from the services perspective, especially financial services. And I see that the D-8 is trying to build a payment system. I think that this is one area that we can, very quickly, move things along. This is one of the areas you may be looking at, especially engaging Nigerian banks to see in which ways they can function within the AfCTA and all our partners and member countries of the D-8.”

On Nigeria’s advocacy for a just transition to net zero, the Vice president urged the D-8 to join in the campaign, noting that “we are at a point where we are arguing about the role of gas in this whole transition to net zero. Whether we can, as it is being proposed by the wealthier countries, dispense with gas and use more of renewables. But we, of course, are pushing back and saying, we must continue to use gas.”

“Our advocacy in the area of energy access is an important consideration in the whole campaign towards net zero. It is possible for the D-8 to take it up because all our countries are faced with more or less the same sort of challenges.

“Our advocacy for consideration of more investments in fossil fuels especially gas (for us) is one that we think can also be taken up by the D-8,” he added.

Osinbajo further commended the organisation for its work in social protection and health, especially with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his remarks, Imam said there was a deliberate effort to reinvigorate trade among member countries in the new direction of the D-8, especially improving trade volumes from $121 billion to a new target of about $500 billion by 2030.

He added that plans were underway to establish a D-8 MSME Centre in Abuja as part of efforts to boost trade by building capacity among MSMEs in member countries, noting that the centre, if realised “will be a game-changer for members to enhance the capacity and training of MSMEs in branding and quality control.”

The Star