By Maureen Okon
Ms. Emmanuelle Blatmann, the French Ambassador to Nigeria, said Nigeria was France’s first trading partner in Sub-Saharan Africa
She added that Nigeria’ trading alone accounted for 75 per cent of French investments in West Africa.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the envoy made this known at her country’s National Day celebration at the embassy’s residence in Abuja.
Blatmann appreciated the guests and partners of the embassy who honoured her invitation to the national day celebration on an evening.
According to her, “it is also a celebration for all those who recognise themselves in the universal message carried by the revolution and in our motto – liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality and ftaternity).
“This enthusiasm is also reflected in the vitality of our economic and trade relationship.
“Close to a hundred French companies are present here where they employ more than 10,000 Nigerians.
“They create factories, farms or vocational traning institutes and register their actions over time.
“I pay tribute to the spirit of initiative, social commitment and dynamism of the French private sector, whose representatives I warmly welcome here this evening .
“The recent creation of the French TECH Community in Lagos, will welcome start-ups and entrepreneurs from our two countries.
“Also, the setting up of a French Desk within Access Bank, with the recent economic measures taken by President Bola Tinubu, we hope to see an influx of new French investors.”
She added that “the opening of the first branch of Access Bank in Paris, also testifies to the attractiveness of France, the first destination for foreign investment in Europe, for several years.
She stated the values that always guided France’s action when promoting international solidarity, peace, democracy and human rights, or when it depended on multilateralism.
“In an unfortunate, still uncertain world, we remain convinced that more collective action and common benchmarks are needed.
” France will therefore continue, as it did recently, with the Summit for a New Gloal Financial Pact, to mobilise its friends and partners to provide collective response.
Such response is to global challenges such as climate change, health , poverty or terrorism, all of which particularly affect Africa.
“In these fights to help build peace, balance, and progress on the continent , the European Union, France, and Nigeria share many common objectives and the same determination to act,” she said.
The ambassador added that France was ready to work with Nigeria’s new administration after hosting president Bola Tinubu on his first official visit abroad since his inuaguration.
NAN reports that Bastille Day in France is celebrated annually on July 14 with military parades and fireworks, and the event marks the fall of Bastille on July 14, 1789.
Google Doodle on Friday celebrated ‘Bastille Day’, which is the French National Day commemorating the fall of the Bastille in July.
This significant day marks the historic event of July 14, 1789, when French citizens joined forces and stormed the Bastille prison fortress, signalling the onset of the French Revolution. (NAN)
