The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, on Tuesday, called for the establishment of a Nigeria-France business council to enhance trade relations between the two countries.
He explained that the council, which would be private sector-driven, would perform the statutory roles of coordinating and promoting enabling business environment and spurring economic growth.
The minister while addressing French Minister for Foreign Trade and Attractiveness, Franck Riester, who was accompanied by some French investors in Nigeria, also called on French companies to take advantage of the nation’s teeming youth to invest in software manufacturing in the country.
Noting that France was a large exporter of software, he called on some of the French software companies to come into the country and establish their companies to create jobs for the teeming youth.
This, the minister said, would help President Muhammadu Buhari to achieve its plan to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years
Adebayo said the setting up of some special economic zones to promote the manufacturing sector had provided investors another great opportunity to invest in the country.