Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, arrived in Africa on Sunday to forge closer economic ties, tapping into raw materials, boosting security and limiting migration.
According to the Ecowas commission, Scholz’s visit will provide an opportunity for the German Chancellor and the ECOWAS Commission to engage in discussions on areas of existing and new cooperation.
Berlin, which has had little attachment in this part of Africa, is expected to discuss energy deals with Nigeria and will also visit Ghana with migration flows, and instability in West Africa also on his agenda.
Scholz plans to use his visit to Nigeria to promote gas imports. This is his third trip to Africa since taking office almost two years ago.
“German businesses have an interest in gas supplies from Nigeria and have high hopes of a partnership with Nigerian gas companies,” Scholz said in an interview with the Nigerian newspaper, The Punch.
Scholz said Germany was prioritising joint initiatives to promote the production of hydrogen as the fuel of the future.
Nigeria is also one of the countries with which Scholz wants to reach an agreement to make it easier to deport unrecognised asylum seekers.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to do likewise on Monday, when he will arrive for talks in Tanzania and Zambia.
Scholz and Steinmeier will focus on Germany’s economic relations with countries linked to the reform of Berlin’s “Compact with Africa” initiative ahead of the November 20, 2023, meeting of African and G20 countries in Berlin.
More members of the German Government will travel to Africa in the coming days.
Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faser, and the Special Commissioner for the migration agreement, Joachim Stamp, will travel to Morocco.
In the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine and growing tensions with China, German companies are increasingly turning their attention to African countries in search of new economic potential.
Ghana is a stable democracy and considered a safe business location in West Africa, says Burkhardt Hellemann, the head of the German Chamber of Foreign Trade in Ghana.
“Many German companies have chosen Ghana because of this, in order to also trade in the region or into the region… in Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and so on,” Hellemann said.
According to Maren Diale-Schellschmidt, head of the German Chamber of Foreign Trade, Kenya and Tanzania are catching up on infrastructure, energy and environmental technology — a sector that is of particular interest to Germany.
Talks between Olaf Scholz and Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema are expected to focus on water as a resource.
While in the country, Steinmeier will inspect a water extraction plant on the Zambezi River — the product of a German development cooperation project.
