Nigeria is US second-largest partner with trading totaling nearly $13bn in 2024 - Ambassador Mills

By Matthew Denis

The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills Jr, has disclosed that the United States and Nigeria have come in deepening our people-to-people ties, the foundation of our relationship.

He made the disclosure on Thursday at the Fireside Chat held at the Lagos Business School under the theme ‘Toward a Robust US-Nigeria Commercial and Investment Partnership.’

According to him Nigeria is the world’s present and future as the African continent’s most populous country, Nigeria is poised to overtake the United States as the third most populous country in the world by 2050, with a population projected to exceed 375 million.

He said "Nigeria is already the United States’ second-largest trading partner in Africa, with two-way trade in goods and services totaling nearly $13 billion in 2024. In terms of investment, the United States remains one of Nigeria’s leading foreign investors, with foreign direct investment reaching $6.5 billion in 2023—a 5.5 percent increase from 2022.

“Over the last few decades, the United States has invested billions of dollars in Nigeria’s health, education, and agricultural sectors, I believe, saving lives and also creating new economic opportunities on the ground. However, we have reached what President (Donald) Trump likes to call an inflexion point. Now is the time for us both to build on the strength of these aid investments, and for Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies with huge economic potential, to enter a new phase of vibrant private sector-led growth. Our approach, I want to be clear, I think, is three.

"Our strong partnership is built on the rich connections that exist between our countries, our companies, our entrepreneurs, and our people. Take companies like Flutterwave, Andela, and Esusu—they were all founded by remarkable young Nigerians who studied in the United States. I’m sure even more start-ups will emerge from the minds of the more than 20,000 Nigerian students currently studying in the United States.

"Those Nigerian students represent the largest number of students from any African country and the 7th largest worldwide. Similarly, Nigerians are the largest African diaspora group in the United States, with over 750,000 people of Nigerian descent living in the United States. These deep bonds of familial, educational, business, and cultural connections underscore the strategic importance of Nigeria to U.S. policy objectives in Africa.

He emphasised that As U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, a key priority of my mandate is to increase trade, investment, and business linkages between our two nations.

" To achieve this goal, last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce—together with Nigeria’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment—signed a Commercial and Investment Partnership agreement, a five-year memorandum of understanding that prioritizes three key pillars: agriculture, the digital economy, and infrastructure.

"Nigeria is one of only five African nations that the U.S. has signed a CIP agreement with. We are officially launching the Partnership discussions later this month in Abuja. The three working groups on agriculture, tech, and infrastructure, consisting of both U.S. and Nigerian private sector representatives, will be taking a hard look at each sector’s non-tariff barriers to trade and other regulatory challenges which, for too long, have dampened two-way trade and investment.

" Both governments will listen and learn from these private sector working groups on what concrete steps both governments can take to address these challenges. The CIP process puts government and business into the same room to remove obstacles to trade. I firmly believe that working together to advance our shared economic interests will create jobs, boost innovation, and unlock new opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic."