DUBAI: The Director General of Nigerian Trade Centre (NTC) in Dubai, Mohammed Baiwa, stated that the volume of trade between Nigeria and Dubai has dropped to $6 million due to failure of the Nigerian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Ibrahim Awailu to transfer NTC in Dubai to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and INVESTMENT (MITI), as directed by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012.
Data obtained by THISDAY at the Dubai customs central statistics office, showed that the inflow of trade and INVESTMENT between Nigeria and UAE has slowed down drastically as a result of the disagreement between Baiwa and Awailu.
According to the data, while flow of trade between UAE and Nigeria grew from $500 million to $1 billion in 2004 and about $3 billion in 2011 when the NTC was fully operational, it only managed $1billion in 2013. This was $2 billion lower than the $3 billion recorded in 2011. It went further down in 2013 and last year.
Baiwa stated in a telephone chat with THISDAY recently that Nigeria is losing investors because it has no trade centre in the region like other countries.
He alleged that the then Minister of State for Works, Bashir Yuguda was instrumental to the failure to transfer the NTC to the ministry of industry, trade and INVESTMENT.
According to Baiwa, “When we started the NTC a few years ago, the volume of trade between Nigeria and the UAE moved from $500 million to $1billion annual. Before then, Nigeria had no embassy in the UAE. But when Yuguda was appointed ambassador, he wanted to change the NTC to his personal company and we refused. He opened an office and called it the Nigerian Trade Mission (NTM). They have collected money from government for this purpose and the office does not exist anywhere in Dubai.
“Since then, he has done everything to destroy me. He has called me a drug pusher, reported me to the authorities in the UAE. I was investigated and given a clean bill of health. They have held my passport for two year now and this is despite a presidential order that they allow the NTC operate independently under the trade ministry.”
THISDAY investigation revealed that countries like the United States, India, China and Kenya have regional trade centres independent of their country’s embassies.
The NTC in Dubai is a business development liaison office created to facilitate Nigeria’s international businesses, trade and product access into the UAE, the neighbouring Gulf states and the Asian continent markets.
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