Nigeria and France have strengthened their economic cooperation by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) focused on developing the mineral value chain. This agreement, reached during President Bola Tinubu’s recent visit to France, is in line with the Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and underscores the push for investments in critical infrastructure, including solid minerals, renewable energy, and human capital development.
Antoine Arman, the French Minister of Economy, Finance, and Industry, alongside Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Wale Edun, formalized the deal, which aims to attract European investments to Nigeria’s mining and mineral processing sectors. The partnership will further seek to facilitate the sustainable exploitation of Nigeria’s mineral resources, while also ensuring that there is the inclusion of local communities in the value chain.
Following this deal, the French Development Agency (AFD) pledged financial and technical support to implement key projects, with a particular focus on enhancing Nigeria’s capacity to refine and add value to its minerals, with the hope that there will be significant reduction in raw exports, and thereby encourage domestic processing
This partnership is a significant achievement for the Tinubu administration, countering critics who had accused the president of embarking on a frivolous trip to France
