The German chancellor says her country wants to boost energy partnership withAfrica’s top oil producer.
Angela Merkel told journalists at the presidential palace in the West African country’s capital Thursday that Nigeria and Germany are to set up a commission primarily aimed at boosting energy partnership between the two nations.
She said Nigeria needs to overcome its security challenges to be more attractive to industries.
The chancellor is on the last stop of a three-nation Africa trip that included Kenya and Angola. Angola briefly unseated Nigeria as Africa’s top oil producer in 2009 at a time when militancy was rife in the country’s oil-rich southern delta.
The Niger Delta has since seen relative peace, but a rising Islamic insurgency in the country’s northeast has raised new security concerns.
