Rabat – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari hosted on Monday in Abuja Morocco’s Minister of Economic Inclusion Younes Sekkouri, who presented the Nigerian leader with a message from King Mohammed VI.
“Bilateral cooperation and relations with Nigeria formed the focus of this reception,” a report by Morocco’s news agency MAP quoted the message as saying.
Morocco and Nigeria share good diplomatic ties, which were strengthened further by the 2016 agreement to implement the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline.
King Mohammed VI and President Buhari announced the project during the Moroccan monarch’s visit to Nigeria in the same year.
The project seeks to introduce energy self-reliance to the African continent which has been heavily dependent on imports from the international market,
With the Russia-Ukraine crisis still ongoing, many African countries have emphasized the importance of using the continent’s resources to ensure self-sufficiency to avoid an energy crisis.
The gas pipeline, whose cost is estimated at $25 billion, will connect over 11 countries to benefit from Nigeria’s vast gas reserves.
In addition to transporting Nigerian gas to Europe through Morocco, the 5,600 kilometers pipeline is projected to benefit over 400 million people across West Africa.
A future home to 1,672 kilometers of the pipeline, Morocco has reiterated its support for the continental project, stressing its key role in helping Africa improve its socio-economic development and energy infrastructure.
Like Morocco, several countries — including member states of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) — have emphasized their unwavering support for the project.
In November, ECOWAS Commissioner in charge of Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalization Sediko Douka “saluted” Morocco and Nigeria for “having had this vision of the future which will definitively establish the energy independence of our region and the strengthening of South-South cooperation.”
