Economy & Trade
Nigeria is the second largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa). The most developed state of the Nigerian federation, Lagos State, would itself be the second largest economy in West Africa after Nigeria. Nigeria has the advantage of a large market - 220 million people and a GDP per capita level that is higher than all its neighbouring countries. Nigeria is the 6th largest oil producer in the world and, along with Angola, the first in Africa. The share of industry in GDP is also relatively high at 14%. The country's former capital Lagos is the centre of the financial world of West Africa.
Nigeria has long been the Czech Republic's second largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa and the Czech Republic's most important trading partner in West Africa. Since 2010, Czech exports to Nigeria have never fallen below CZK 1 billion. Czech exports to Nigeria are diversified and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Nigeria, in cooperation with CzechTrade, strives to maintain and further expand this diversification.
Within the framework of a certain division of labour between the Embassy in Abuja and CzechTrade in Lagos, which, however, has no insurmountable boundaries, the Embassy focuses on areas where direct support and lobbying of the state is necessary for the exporter, typically arms supplies, supplies to the state oil company NNPC, supplies to agriculture or mining. In doing so, the Trade and Economic Department in Abuja is of course also involved in the private sector. CzechTrade in Lagos focuses mainly on the private sector, large private Nigerian and international companies that are mostly based in Lagos.
The Trade and Economic Section of the Czech Embassy in Abuja is headed by the Economic Diplomat, Mrs. Mgr. Marie Nwanyanwu, email: Abuja.Commerce@mzv.gov.cz.
In March 2017, the CzechTrade Office was established in Lagos, headed by Mr. Ing. Štěpán Beneš, email: stepan.benes@czechtrade.cz.