Germany’s president Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday met with Nigerian leader Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the capital Abuja during a two-day visit aimed at enhancing the countries’ “energy partnership”.
Steinmeier was joined by a delegation of German firms operating in the energy (Siemens, Enertrag, Off-Grid Europe, Neuman & Esser), finance (Exficon), distribution (C. Woermann) and technology (Dermalog, LiveEO) sectors.
“We have one of the longest energy partnerships that Germany has ever had with Nigeria,” said Steinmeier, adding that the collaboration is not limited to oil and gas.
The “energy partnership” between Europe’s largest economy and Africa’s most populous nation has gravitated “towards solar and wind power in recent years” but the next goal is “hydrogen production”, the German leader said.
The Nigerian president after the talks said his goal was to “continue to give you assurance that our business doors are opened and our reforms are working very well”.
“Our businessmen and policy makers are very anxious to do business with Germany,” Tinubu said.
Since coming to power in May 2023, Tinubu has ended a costly fuel subsidy and freed up the naira currency in reforms that government officials and analysts say will revive the economy and attract investors.
But in the short term, the moves have deepened one of its worst crises in decades with inflation at a nearly thirty-year high of more than 33 percent in October.
“German companies are seeing an improvement in investment relations,” Steinmeier said of Tinubu’s reforms.
Adebayo Adelabu, Nigeria’s energy minister, said no fresh deal had been signed during the visit, but that both sides “discussed how we can accelerate the existing agreements”.
The Union Bank of Nigeria and the German DWS Group in November 2023 pledged to invest $500 million in renewable energy.