EU ’II Not Increase Financial Support To Nigeria -Envoy

The European Union (EU), Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr Michel Arrion, says EU will not increase its financial assistance to Nigeria.
Arrion, made this known in Abuja while delivering a Distinguished Lecture organised by the IBB Golf Club, with the theme, “40 years of European union in Nigeria: Lessons learned and the way forward”.
The ambassador, who said that, EU was not promising further assistance to Nigeria however said that Nigeria remains EU key partner in view of the role it plays in global affairs.
The envoy also stressed that the Union would scale up its efforts towards the country’s institutional, political and economic development for a more prosperous future. He said that, Nigeria could not be said to be poor, as it  has enough resources to meet its developmental needs.
While expressing concern on the economic level of the country, Arrion called for a more equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth to ensure growth and stability and unleash its enormous economic potentials. Arrion explained that the combine aides to the country were about ten per cent of the country’s annual budget.
According to him, the Official Development Assistance  (ODA) flow in Nigeria is about 2.5 billion dollars yearly, which  correspond roughly to about 10 per cent of the federal budget (N7.3trillion  or 24 billion dollars).
This, he said, has raised the question of, should EU continue to give aide to Nigeria.?
Arrion, however said the regional block would scale up its efforts towards the country’s institutional, political and economic development for a more prosperous future.
“We are not offering more financial support, we are proposing more political and policy dialogue, technical assistance, capacity building, training, transfer of technology.