Indonesia, Nigeria trade drops sharply: envoy

Trade volume between Indonesia and Nigeria has dropped drastically, owing to the slow down of interactions between governments of the two countries, said the Indonesian ambassador in Nigeria.

The trade volume between the countries reduced to 1.75 billion U.S. dollars last year, from 4 billion U.S. dollars that was recorded in 2014, Ambassador Harry Purwanto told reporters in Abuja on Sunday.

"After 2014, because of difficulties in the global economy, both countries have focused on their domestic affairs and it looks like the interaction between our countries is slightly slowing down," Purwanto said.

According to him, the trade volume is already going down to less than 800 million U.S. dollars as statistics put together between January and June have shown.

Purwanto, however, expressed optimism that Indonesia and Nigeria would put things back on track for a more robust trade partnership.

In 2001, the two countries signed an economic and technical agreement which sought to increase trade and various bilateral exchanges.

Purwanto said the signing of that economic and technical agreement in 2001 had been of benefit to both countries, but added, lately it has been "more of explorations rather than manifestations of real and concrete cooperation between two countries."

The envoy expressed Indonesia's interest to enhance cooperation with Nigeria in the areas of agriculture, industry, as well as science and technology. Endit