US shifting from aid to trade in Nigeria, others – Ambassador

MaTaZ ArIsInG
Dallas, Texas

The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills Jr, has said that the US will be focusing on private sector-led investment instead of aid in its engagement with Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.

Mills Jr said this on Thursday at the Fireside Chat held at the Lagos Business School under the theme ‘Toward a Robust US-Nigeria Commercial and Investment Partnership.’

Nigeria is the US’s second-largest trade partner in Africa, with bilateral trade hitting about $13bn at the end of 2024.

He said, “Over the last few decades, the United States has invested billions of dollars in Nigeria’s health, education, and agricultural sectors, I believe, saving lives and also creating new economic opportunities on the ground. However, we have reached what President (Donald) Trump likes to call an inflexion point. Now is the time for us both to build on the strength of these aid investments, and for Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies with huge economic potential, to enter a new phase of vibrant private sector-led growth. Our approach, I want to be clear, I think, is three.

“We are making a shift from aid to trade. We want to engage African nations not as aid recipients, but as capable commercial partners. For us, as our chief of African Affairs, Ambassador Latrell, said, going forward, we will continue to invest in development, but we will do so through expanding trade and private investment, because it is the private sector, not assistance, ultimately, that drives the final stage of economic growth. By promoting two-way trade and investment, we believe we can drive mutual growth for both our nations. So, as the US Ambassador to Nigeria, I’ve been given a key priority for my mandate to increase trade, increase investment, and increase business linkages between our two countries.”

To achieve this goal,  Mills Jr stated that last year, the US Department of Commerce, working together with Nigeria’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, signed a commercial and investment partnership agreement.

“The CIP is a five-year memorandum of understanding in which we prioritise with the Nigerian government three key pillars: agriculture, the digital economy, and infrastructure. I should point out that Nigeria is only one of five African nations with which the US has signed the CIP agreement. We are officially launching the partnership discussions later this month,” he stated.

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