The Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Harry Purwanto, said the volume of trade between Nigeria and his country reduced to 1.75 billion dollars in 2015 from four billion dollars in 2014.

Mr. Purwanto made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja yesterday.

“From 2001 till now is some period of time and I think up till 2014, there are many things we have done in following up our technical and economic agreement.

“However, after 2014, because of difficulties in the global economy, both countries have focused on their domestic affairs and it looks like the interaction between our countries is slightly slowing down.

“And what we have seen are more explorations rather than manifestations of real and concrete cooperation between two countries.

“It is rather discouraging because in 2014, our trade with Nigeria was almost four billion U.S. dollars.

“In 2015, it went down to about 1.75 billion U.S. dollars because of, perhaps, the oil prices and the global difficulties in economic and financial times.

“From January to June last year, trade on both sides was about one billion U.S. dollars, but this year from January to June, it is going down to less than 800 million U.S. dollars.

“The other thing is perhaps the transition in Nigeria, the change of government, and in Indonesia we did have our new government in late 2014 and we also transitioned; we already have two cabinet reshuffles.

“The new administrations need to learn and see what is on the files before they leap forward,” he said.

The envoy said that the Nigeria-Indonesia Commercial Association facilitated investment opportunities among businessmen of both countries. He also explained that both countries shared similarities that formed the background of mutual relations between them, and added that efforts were being made to sustain existing relations.