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Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu on Thursday began a state visit to France aimed at “strengthening political, economic and cultural relations” with the country.
Tinubu and French President Emmanuel Macron are expected to discuss finance, solid minerals, trade, and investments during the three-day visit, Nigeria’s presidency said.
“The France-Nigeria Business forum is so important and trade and investment has been integral to this partnership,” Tinubu said in a joint press conference with Macron. “We’ve been working on stabilizing the security system in Nigeria,” he said, while inviting French investors to consider doing business in his country.
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Nigeria is France’s top trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, say French officials. And France was among Nigeria’s top five export destinations in the last quarter of 2023, accounting for a 6% share, according to Nigeria’s statistics office.
Some analysts see the visit as part of Macron’s Angolophone pivot in search of new African allies. France’s influence in the subregion has waned in recent years. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger — former French colonies — have severed military ties with Paris, forging partnerships with Russia. Popular sentiment in the subregion has also turned against France’s economic and business interests in its former colonies.
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Tinubu and Macron published a joint opinion piece in Newsweek, professing the relationship between their nations as “a partnership between equals.”
