In attendance at the opening of the chancery were H.E Rashed bin Khalifa bin Mohammed al Khalifa, Minister's Assistant for Service Affairs, Ambassador Ibrahim Yousif Abdullah Fakhro, Director of Protocol, Ministry of Foreign of Foreign Affairs Qatar, Ali Ibrahim Ahmed, Eritrean Ambassador, Dean of Diplomatic Corps in Qatar and OJ Millar, President Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO Qatar).
Speaking at the ceremony, Ambassador Ahmed said, "The opening of the embassy demonstrates the strengthening of the growing cooperation that exists between Nigerian and Qatar. The increasing strategic importance of Qatar in global peace and development cannot be underestimated. Qatar today is centre of worldwide leadership and dialogue."
The envoy pointed out that a trade agreement in aviation will be agreed with Qatar in a few days. "We need to work very hard to improve on the existing bilateral relations with Qatar, luckily for us on a day like this when we open the chancery; there is a Nigerian delegation to renegotiate the existing Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) with Qatar.
Responding to a question on the unavailability of an e-passport service in the embassy, "Unfortunately in the whole of the Gulf region, it is only the Nigerian Embassy in Saudi Arabia that issues passport, the other embassies in UAE, Kuwait and Qatar doesn't issue. Nevertheless, we have formally written to the Comptroller General, Nigerian Immigration Service for mobile intervention team to visit Doha for a couple of days so they can issue passport for people in need. There are clear indications they will be here very soon."
The envoy pointed out that a trade agreement in aviation will be agreed with Qatar in a few days. "We need to work very hard to improve on the existing bilateral relations with Qatar, luckily for us on a day like this when we open the chancery; there is a Nigerian delegation to renegotiate the existing Bilateral Air Space Agreement (BASA) with Qatar.
The minister of aviation was supposed to lead the team but she couldn't make it however we have a seven man delegation from the ministry of aviation to renegotiate the process tomorrow, we hope to sign a new agreement on Tuesday."
On other areas of possible relationship between the two countries, he said, "We are also looking at potential areas of investment and private investors from the Qatar to Nigeria. You know Qataris are the most prolific investors around the world, they are everywhere and everybody is approaching them for possible investment. We intend to vigorously pursue that aspect to see how the Qataris can invest significantly in the Nigerian economy."
"The Nigerian economy is one of the fastest growing not only in Africa but the world, returns on investments in Nigeria are one of the highest in the world and the Qataris being very pragmatic investors; we expect they will look at our economy and market very favourably."
The envoy pointed out that agriculture is one area he hopes the Qataris can do trade with Nigeria because, "Nigeria has a fertile and conducive climate for agriculture, we know the Qatris's as part of their future vision food security. Already they have invested in agric countries like Sudan; we hope they will favourably look at Nigeria. We have mass land and labour, there are over 170 million Nigerians and 70 percent are into agriculture. We feel that agric is a significant area we can work together."
"We are both major oil and gas producers and exporters; Qatar has done extremely well in harnessing the vast oil and gas they have, we hope its one are we can learn few things from and get them to invest in Liquefied Natural Gas industry and then of course there other areas like telecommunication, with a huge population like ours, it's a big market for intending investors," he added.
The ambassador informed that Nigerians will be expected to register online with the embassy as soon as the embassy's website is operational so as to have tenable figure of the Nigerians in Qatar.
Also, the ambassador said he intends to meet the community in an organised civic reception, "but you must appreciate to organise a reception for over 6000 Nigerians is not going to be easy," he added.
The embassy of Nigeria is situated at Al Istiqlal Street, building 39, zone 63, street 941, Dafna West Bay. The opening days are Sunday-Thursday, opening times 8.00am-12.00pm and 2.00pm -3.00pm.
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