Taiwan’s Ambassador to Nigeria and Representative of the Taipei Trade Office, Andy Yih-Ping Liu, has said that the trade volume between Nigeria and his country hit an all-time high of $1 billion in 2021.
Speaking at the Taiwan Business Forum in Lagos on Monday, Ambassador Liu said Nigeria enjoyed a trade surplus from trading with Taiwan in 2021 because the country imported great quality agricultural products, like sesame, chestnut and oil-related products.
Liu said: “If I can trace the trade volume, the highest peak of trade had reached about 1 billion US dollars in 2021. It was at the peak of the COVID-19. So you can imagine how much of the goods had been transacted between Nigeria and Taiwan.
“And actually, Nigeria enjoyed a trade surplus from trading with Taiwan, because we have asked for more of your great quality agricultural products, like sesame and chestnut, besides your oil-related product.
“Since 2021, we have had a huge demand for good quality agriculture products for our food and processing industries. We have great agriculture and we have a great food industry. But at the same time, we have to import good quality agricultural products directly from Nigeria.
“But in the year 2021, we have imported so much of your sesame and chestnut, and we grind it into sesame oil, and we export to China. The reason I mentioned the peak is because it has never before reached that volume.
“But 2022, we see this sliding down, because the provider of the Nigerian food product had already matched our demand. So from 2022 and 2023, we saw a decrease, probably around $400 million to $500 million.
“It’s still a great volume because the continuing of regular trading is still going on. So we might see some unexpected rise shortly, but we don’t know for the moment.”
Ambassador Liu expressed concern over counterfeit and pirated Taiwan products. “The people in Taiwan have been suffering all kinds of counterfeiting and piracy all around the world. But because Chinese people, normally like to copy other people’s products and claim that they have their brand of that. It’s something like a factual situation around the world.
“So, what we have been doing is to have our delegation visiting the world to prove that we are the victim of being pirated and being copied. But we would like to still demonstrate that we have a good quality product, and we would like the world to see who the true providers of this kind of product are.
So, we are very happy to come with a delegation, come to Nigeria to demonstrate who the true owner of that brand is and who is providing good quality products.
“And the most important thing is that those who have provided pirate or those who have provided counterfeit, they will hit, grab the money and run. But our supplier will stay. So the quality of Taiwan industry is that we do not just provide a good quality product, but we provide after-sale services.”
On his part, the Director General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Olusola Obadimu, said Nigeria needs to develop long-term goals that would ensure the development of the economy.
Obadimu said: “I’ve been to Taiwan and one key attribute about them is that they do ethical business. It’s a smaller country, but the quality of their products is guaranteed. They don’t compromise products and they don’t shortchange people.
“They will give you your real goods, which might be a bit on the high side, but you get quality for whatever you order from them. That’s what we are saying, because around 1960, together with these far eastern countries, we were about the same thing economically.
“But focus is a big thing and leadership is a very big thing when it comes to running national economies. You don’t run national economies as if you are running a shop. It’s different. And we’ve got to develop to a point where we’ve got to have our long-term goals set, that people, whoever comes to power, can still see that goal and key into it.”
