A former Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, Ambassador Olufemi Michael Abikoye, has enjoined both countries to turn longstanding goodwill into joint production, shared markets and measurable commercial results.
He made the call in a keynote address titled “Celebrating Ghana-Nigeria Business Partnership” delivered at the 2026 NUTAG Award Night, held on October 10 at Holy Spirit Cathedral, Adabraka, Accra.
The event was organised by the Nigeria Union of Traders Ghana (NUTAG), under the presidency of Comrade Evaristus Nwankwo. Ghana’s Minister of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Hon. Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, was the special guest, while Ambassador Shehu Ilu Barde, current Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana, was the guest of honour.
Ambassador Abikoye said the two countries had spent enough time on declarations and must now deliver results.
He urged a shift “from good relations to good business relations, from just trade to creation of value chains, from border obstacles to trade facilitation, from individual corporate expansion to regional business ecosystems, from government declarations to measurable commercial outcomes.”
He noted that trade between the two peoples predates ECOWAS. “What we call today Ghana-Nigeria Business Partnership is not new,” he said. “It is only being formalised, expanded and modernised.”
The former envoy said the two economies bring different advantages. Nigeria offers scale, while Ghana has a strategic location, established commercial infrastructure and the institutional significance of hosting the AfCFTA Secretariat.
“Together, our economies can do much more than simply sell finished products to one another. We can produce together for Africa. That should be the new ambition.”
He urged both countries to define their relations in terms of “shared markets, shared production and shared prosperity.”
Ambassador Abikoye said competition was healthy but protectionism between two major African economies was not. A Nigerian company investing in Ghana, he said, should not automatically be seen as taking something away from Ghana, and the same should apply to Ghanaian firms expanding into Nigeria. Investment, he said, should be viewed as a bridge between the two economies.
He called for an environment in which businesses can invest across borders with greater predictability, transparency and confidence. Nigerian companies, he said, should see Ghana as a strategic West African platform, while Ghanaian companies should see Nigeria as a partner for scale, capital, technology and regional expansion.
The ambassador warned that trade disputes can quickly become diplomatic irritants. He cited the recent Ghana-Nigeria onion trade dispute, in which government intervention was needed to restore the movement of supplies.
“The lesson is not that disagreements should disappear,” he said. “The lesson is that we need better mechanisms for resolving them.”
He called on governments to systematically identify and remove unnecessary non-tariff barriers, duplicative regulations, arbitrary restrictions and avoidable delays at borders, without waiting for businesses to complain individually.
He also stressed the free movement of people and services. Modern business, he said, involves not only containers crossing borders but also engineers, bankers, consultants, lawyers, artisans and entrepreneurs moving knowledge. If goods can move but the people who create value cannot, he said, regional integration remains incomplete.
Ambassador Abikoye said the larger goal should not be for each country to simply export more to the other, but to determine what Nigerian and Ghanaian companies can produce together for Africa and the world.
The high point of the event was presentation NUTAG Excellence Award 2026, to the ex-Envoy, Ambassador Olufemi Michael Abikoye, for his handwork, diplomatic excellence, consistency in positively projecting the image of Nigeria.
