French Envoy Says Insecurity Impeding Nigeria’s Economic Development

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The Outgoing French Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms. Emmanuelle Blatmann has noted that insecurity continues to undermine Nigeria’s push for greatness, stating that Nigeria has all it takes to be among the economic greats globally.
Blatmann, who has been withdrawn from Nigeria to take up the position of Director for Africa and the Indian Ocean at French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, said: “Nigeria should solve the security challenges and see how many businesses would roll in.”

The envoy while narrating what Nigeria should have gained had there been no challenges with security in the country, noted that countries in Europe were looking to Nigeria to solve their energy problem as a result of the war in Ukraine.
 She said that Europe had to seek solution elsewhere because the country could not provide the needed energy as a result of insecurity and illegal oil bunkering
She said: “One thing that has frustrated me over the last two years is the problem in the oil and gas sector. When Ukraine war started, all the European countries were trying to diversify their supply of gas and oil and obviously many of them turned to Nigeria.

“Because at that time due to oil bunkering Nigeria was not only able to increase its capacity, and supply but sometimes was not able to meet the already existing contracts and was not meeting the quota the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had fixed, the European countries have to look elsewhere.”
She lamented that this could have gone far in bringing back oil boom to the country and it was rather unfortunate that the opportunity was lost.
She equally decried that at a point in time some oil exploration companies had to close down as they alleged that 90 per cent of oil pumped into the pipelines were stolen.

Blatmann asked: “How is that sustainable for any business,” insisting that to get back into business and attract businesses to Nigeria, security was paramount.
She however noted that despite the challenges, Nigeria is a country with immense potential and opportunities, noting that France recognises this and has invested so much in Nigeria.

The envoy said France remains the second largest country with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Nigeria and has through its development bank- Agence Francaise de Development (AFD)  been pushing concessionary loans to Nigeria.
She noted that in the last 10 years, France had doubled her investment to Nigeria with French companies employing over 10,000 Nigerians.
The envoy insisted that Nigeria remains in the top five countries benefiting massive investment from France, well above many major Francophone African countries.