Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan is expected in the country Thursday for a two-day visit and he is set to enter a joint anti-narcotics campaign agreement with Kenya.
This would be one of several deals the West African leader would be coming to Nairobi to sign as Kenya seeks to boost its relations with Nigeria.
Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed told reporters Tuesday that the two-day visit would be “an incredibly significant visit for both countries” because it would help the countries handle what she called previous challenges of engagements.
“We will sign several agreements including one on cooperation in some of the areas that we have had challenges in, but also on areas that we must cooperate in,” she said.
“Of course in the area of narcotic drugs: That is an area too that we will be signing an agreement on so that we can cooperate much more closely because our views are the same on this. We have the same position on it and we intent to work very closely on that issue.”
President Kenyatta’s government in May vowed total war on drug traffickers and directed that foreign traffickers be deported. A number of foreigners have since been taken to their homelands including Ethiopia, Guinea, and Nigeria.
The Nigerian leader will be accompanied by more than 100 businesspeople and a number of top government officials.
The last such state visit to Nairobi was by the then Nigerian president Ibrahim Babaginda in October 1987 although it would be Jonathan’s second visit under the Kenyatta administration. He was last in Kenya during Mr Kenyatta’s inauguration in April.
INADEQUATE INTERACTION
On Tuesday, Ms Mohammed said the visit is also expected to help Kenyan and Nigeria businesspeople to interact at a conference to be held at the Intercontinental Hotel on Saturday.
“Nigeria is a very strong country in the West (of Africa), it is an economic powerhouse. We consider it important to our country,” she said.
Although there are several Nigerian Banks such as UBA and Eco Bank operating in Kenya, the government admits there has been inadequate interaction between the two nations. Trade dropped from Sh3billion per year in 2010 to Sh2.9 billion.
“The other challenge we have is attracting investments because we were working for a long time, on agreements on the avoidance of double taxation and protection of investment,” she added.
“Without those it is difficult to attract investments to the country.”
President Jonathan is visiting on the invitation of President Kenyatta following bilateral talks between the two in July on the sidelines of an HIV conference in Abuja. The Foreign Affairs Ministry had contracted a Nigeria-based consulting firm, Ashanti Research to conduct a survey on what needs to be done to improve the relationship between the two countries.
The firm submitted its report Tuesday. Among the recommendations is that both Kenya and Nigeria should invest in technology and change some of their laws to lure investors, especially on taxation and immigration.
