The low trade figures between Finland and Nigeria have been explained by Leena Pylvänäinen, the ambassador of Finland to Nigeria.
It is always a question of which figures are being looked at, she said in an exclusive interview, despite the fact that there are numerous explanations for the figures.
“If you look at simple trade in goods, the customs data, the numbers are incredibly low but they do not capture all of the trade that we do because this data does not cover trade in services and they do not cover trade that goes via third countries and a lot of our trade is actually that type of trade,” said Ms. Pylvänäinen.
But she conceded that the numbers could be higher.
She claims that the fact that Finland doesn’t import gas or oil from Nigeria is one of the reasons why Finland’s trade volume with Nigeria appears to be low in comparison to some other European nations.
One of the main goals we have for this relationship “with Nigeria” is to increase the trade figure, according to Ms. Pylvänäinen.
Despite having its first embassy in West Africa, Finland has historically had closer ties with nations in Eastern and Southern Africa than with those in West Africa. This is another justification she provided.
She noted that Finland was less familiar with West Africa.
She also mentioned Nigeria’s unfavorable business environment as a factor in the low trade figures.
“You have to admit that this [Nigeria] is not the easiest place, especially for a small or medium-sized company from Finland,” Ms. Pylvänäinen said, noting that major Finnish corporations like Nokia have established offices in Nigeria and also employ a sizable workforce there.
According to analysis, the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria, is currently ranked 131 out of 190 economies worldwide in terms of how easy it is to do business there.
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The nation was ranked 170 in 2015; this fell to 169 in 2016; and then to 141 in 2017.
Despite this difficulty, Ms Pylvänäinen stated that the embassy in Nigeria hopes that the larger companies can begin to draw the smaller ones into trade as well as help them establish themselves.
Startups and innovators are one area where we observe very positive development. The startup hubs in Finland and particularly Lagos are in contact in a variety of fascinating ways. Yes, we want to expand, but we also want to diversify our trade,” she said.
When asked if there were any plans to make doing business in Nigeria simple for Finnish companies, she told this newspaper that there was an ongoing conversation in both directions.
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“I mean, we have the same dialogue with the Nigerian embassy, which covers Finland from Stockholm,” Ms. Pylvänäinen said, adding that “there are always problems that are easy to solve through information sharing, but the issues that European companies occasionally encounter in Nigeria are in no way particular to Finnish companies. As a result, there is a lot of discussion about this in the European Chamber of Commerce in Lagos and it is an ongoing topic of conversation between the EU and Nigeria.
