Total Invests $7bn In Nigeria

L-R: Director-General, National Sports Commission, Patrick Ekeji, President, Nigeria Football Federation, Sani Lulu and Secretary-General, Bolaji Ojooba, at the send forth dinner for the Super Eagles in Abuja on Friday.

Total Plc, the French oil company, will soon invest seven billion dollars to expand its deep off-shore exploration for oil and gas in Nigeria.

The French ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Jean-Michel Dumond, said this at a Forum, yesterday, in Abuja.

He said the deal, which would be in partnership with Nigerians, would “represent an investment worth 20 million dollars in the coming years”.

Dumond said 120 French companies were currently in Nigeria, noting that although France was the second largest foreign investor in Nigeria, its investments were mostly in the oil and gas sector.

He said another French company investing in Nigeria’s economy was a cement plant which planned to produce nine million tonnes of cement, well above the six million tonnes it produces in France.

“I think the French enterprises are ready to invest in Nigeria and to meet the requirement of the Nigerian government to cooperate in all fields and sectors,” he said.

Dumond said that trade between Nigeria and France topped 3.2 billion euros in 2009.

“We imported items worth 1.9 billion euros, mainly crude oil, and we exported goods worth 1.3 billion euros into Nigeria in different sectors,” he said.

The envoy said the volume of trade between the two countries had improved over the years, adding that the yearly increase in the level of export was more than 20 per cent.

“There has been of course a decrease in the export from Nigeria to France, which is related very clearly to the decrease in the production of oil linked to the crisis in the Niger Delta region and the fall in the price of oil in 2009,” he said.