The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo has disclosed in a statement issued in Abuja by his media aide that the volume of trade between Nigeria and South Korea nose dived by 74 per cent within two-year period.
Adebayo specifically stated that the volume of trade between both countries dropped from $5m in 2018 to $1.3m in 2019.
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While playing host to the South Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Kim Young-Chae, the minister frowned at the development and called for improvement going forward. He also expressed concern over the decrease in the volume of trade between both nations.
The minister noted that Nigeria and South Korea shared strong economic and investment ties with over 20 Korean companies presently operating in Nigeria.
He named some of the companies to include Samsung and Hyundai Heavy Industries, stressing the need for the South Korean embassy, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and his ministry to work closely towards improving the volume of trade between the two countries.
The minister called on Korean investors to take advantage of the Nigeria’s involvement in the African Continental Free Trade Zone to invest in Nigeria so that they would have access to the large market on the African continent.
The Korean ambassador promised to deepen the trade relations between the two countries and assured the minister that he would support government programmes.
As part of his demands, Adebayo told his visitors to encourage investors from South Korea to invest in the new special economic zones established by the ministry in each of the six geographical zones across the country.