German FM, on Africa tour, eyes business ties amid US, China pressure

Germany's foreign minister wrapped up a two-day visit to Nigeria Wednesday as Berlin moves to deepen business opportunities across Africa amid a more isolationist United States and geo-political pressure from Russia and China.

Johann Wadephul called for "strengthening trade and investment" while meeting his counterpart Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu in Abuja, after spending Tuesday in the economic capital, Lagos.

Claudia Roth, a Green party member of parliament accompanying Wadephul, told AFP "in this world I think desperately, we need new partners... against the warlords in politics, against these Trumps and Putins and Xis."

Diplomatic and trade tensions have flared between the United States and Europe as US President Donald Trump has upended global trade policy and threatened to upend the NATO military alliance.

Europe's economy is under pressure from what it calls unfair Chinese trade practices, while Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine drags into its fifth year.

China and Russia have also carved out economic and security ties, respectively, in Africa.

But Wadephul, on his third trip to Africa this year, said "the potential of our economic partnership is far from exhausted" in Nigeria, "particularly in information technology and the vibrant start-up sector".

Bilateral trade grew by around 10 percent last year, he said.

That comes as President Bola Tinubu has engaged in a raft of reforms, hailed by economists and investors, including liberalising the naira currency exchange rate, overhauling the tax code and removing a costly fuel subsidy.

Wadephul named "critical raw materials, renewable energy and the pharmaceutical industry" as areas for potential growth.

The German foreign minister also commended Nigeria -- which has been fighting a jihadist insurgency concentrated in its northeast since 2009 -- for standing on "the front line in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism".

Wadephul's promise of continued security and humanitarian cooperation, however, comes as Germany's foreign aid budget has repeatedly been cut.

While the United States has come under scrutiny for dismantling its main aid organ, USAID, there has also been a broader Western retreat from foreign assistance in recent years.

Tinubu's economic reforms, meanwhile, have sparked frustrations domestically after they caused crushing inflation in the short-term.

Wadephul's visit to Nigeria comes after a stop in Mauritania on Tuesday before the tour ends in South Africa on Thursday.