Nigeria targets trade expansion, UN Security Council seat in talks with Japan
By Kunle Sanni –
Nigeria is using the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) to deepen economic ties with Japan and advocate for greater African representation in global decision-making bodies, Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar has said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ninth TICAD Summit on Wednesday, Tuggar highlighted Japan’s status as the world’s third-largest economy and pointed to its two key agencies engaging Africa — the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for development assistance and the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) for trade.
“Nigeria already has active projects with Japan, including transmission infrastructure in the power sector,” Tuggar said. “We’re also exporting agricultural products such as shea butter, cassava, and acha grain, which are in high demand in Japan, alongside hydrocarbons worth around $1 billion annually. We want to expand that.”
Beyond trade, Tuggar stressed that TICAD provides a platform to advance Africa’s political and institutional interests. With at least 17 heads of state attending, Nigeria is lobbying for African seats at global institutions such as the UN Security Council, the International Court of Justice, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and the International Maritime Organisation.
The minister added that reform of the global financial system is central to Africa’s development goals. “Unless we have reform in the global financial architecture, neither Nigeria nor Africa as a whole can fully benefit,” he noted, citing ongoing discussions on debt relief, rescheduling, and restructuring with the United Nations and the World Bank.
Tuggar also drew a parallel with Japan’s post-war economic transformation and the “flying geese effect,” in which Japanese corporations expanded across Asia during the 1960s and 1970s. He argued that Nigerian banks such as Zenith, GTBank, UBA, and Access are already following a similar path of regional expansion.
