Rabat – Morocco’s ambassador to Nigeria Moha Ou Ali Tagma has emphasized the importance of Moroccan-Nigerian cooperation, highlighting the two countries’ determination to work in different fields.
In an interview with Nigerian news outlet Daily Trust, Ali Tagma stressed Nigeria’s position as a “strategic partner for Morocco.”
“It is in Nigeria that Morocco undertakes its largest foreign investments,” he said.
He also recalled King Mohammed VI’s visit to Nigeria in 2016, stressing that the Moroccan monarch and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari traced the “path of what should be the relationship” between the two countries.
“The two countries are very close, historically, geographically and culturally and the relationship between them goes back centuries to the time when royalty from Borno, Sokoto and Kano had very deep relations with Morocco, particularly the cities of Marrakech and Fes,” the ambassador told Daily Trust.
According to Trading Economics, a website that specializes in business and trade, Nigeria’s exports to Morocco stood at $14.42 million during 2021.
Morocco’s exports to Nigeria reached $130.91 million during the same year, according to the same website.
King Mohammed VI’s visit to Abuja also marked the milestone introduction of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline.
King Mohammed VI and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari initiated the pipeline project in 2016 with the aim of promoting regional integration in the West African region and reinforcing the continent’s energy security.
Commenting on the pipeline project, the Moroccan ambassador emphasized the importance of the project, recalling King Mohammed VI’s recent speech on November 6 to commemorate the Green March Anniversary.
“In his latest speech, King Mohammed VI affirmed that the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project, intended for present and future generations, ‘works in favor of peace, economic integration of the African continent and its common development,’” the ambassador said.
Describing the pipeline as a project for present and future generations, the monarch aims to see the project benefiting all of West Africa, “a region which is home to more than 440 million people.”
“This is a project for peace for African economic integration and for co-development: a project for the present and for the future generations,” King Mohammed VI said.
The 5,600-kilometer-long pipeline will span over several countries along the Atlantic coast, Morocco will house 1,672 kilometers of the pipeline. Investors are set to put a budget estimated at $25 billion investment on the project.
