Nigeria seeks deeper economic partnership with Spain, courts investors
Nigeria has reaffirmed its commitment to deepening economic ties with Spain, describing the country as a strategic partner and an important bridge between Africa and Europe, during an engagement with the leadership of CEOE, Spain’s foremost business confederation.
The advocacy and high-level engagement was led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar.
Addressing Spanish business leaders, Nigeria underscored its appreciation of CEOE’s role as the institutional backbone of Spain’s productive economy, while highlighting the growing alignment between Nigeria’s reform-driven economic agenda and Spain’s outward-looking private sector.
Officials noted that Nigeria’s economy is steadily stabilising and repositioning through structural reforms, diversification, and stronger macroeconomic coordination. Growth is increasingly driven by non-oil sectors including agriculture, services, manufacturing, technology, and global services. With a population exceeding 200 million over 70 per cent making up a very young demography.
Nigeria stressed its relevance to Spanish business as Africa’s largest market and a natural gateway to West and Central Africa. Through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), investments anchored in Nigeria can serve a continental market of more than 1.3 billion people. The country emphasised its preference for productive, long-term capital, technology transfer, and partnerships that deepen value chains, rather than short-term or speculative engagement.
Several priority sectors for Spanish investment were highlighted. In energy and gas, Nigeria’s vast reserves underpin opportunities across LNG, power generation, petrochemicals, fertilisers, and the energy transition, including major cross-border initiatives such as the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline and the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline. In agriculture and agro-processing, opportunities span mechanisation, food processing, cold-chain logistics, and export-oriented agribusiness.
Infrastructure and industrial development were also identified as key areas, particularly through public–private partnerships in transport, logistics, and special economic zones. Nigeria further positioned itself as an emerging hub for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), citing its young, English-speaking, digitally skilled workforce capable of supporting customer services, shared services, and IT outsourcing for European markets. Technology, fintech, digital infrastructure, creative industries, and professional services were also presented as high-growth sectors.
On migration and labour mobility, Nigeria reiterated that it does not encourage irregular migration, favouring instead structured and legal mobility aligned with labour market needs. Spain’s circular migration framework was commended as consistent with long-standing West African labour practices. Properly managed labour mobility, Nigeria noted, can enhance business competitiveness, reduce irregular migration flows, and strengthen bilateral trust.
The Nigerian delegation also pointed to ongoing policy reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business, regulatory transparency, and investor protection. Investors were assured of incentives, sector-specific support, expanding infrastructure, and a strong emphasis on diaspora- and skills-based investment that connects global expertise with domestic opportunity.
CEOE was invited to play a catalytic role by encouraging Spanish firms to view Nigeria not merely as an export destination, but as a production and services base; by supporting joint ventures and SME partnerships; and by helping shape a more balanced Europe–Africa economic narrative founded on mutual benefit.
Nigeria, however, declared itself open, reform-oriented, and ready for a deeper economic partnership with Spain. Spanish businesses were invited to invest, build, and grow with Nigeria not as a frontier of risk, but as a platform of opportunity with the shared objective of forging durable partnerships that create jobs, add value, and endure.
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