Ambassador Alex E. Kefas presents his Letters of Credence to the President of Portugal

His Excellency Ambassador Alex E. Kefas, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Portugal, presented his Letters of Credence to His Excellency, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa of the Republic of Portugal, Tuesday (yesterday).

Ambassador Alex Kefas conveyed the greetings of His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari and highlighted his achievements since his assumption of office in 2015. These include Economy, Fighting corruption and Security, as well as massive infrastructural development across the country.

While congratulating the Portuguese company, Mota Ingil for winning the contract award for the construction of Kano-Maradi railway, the Nigerian Envoy called on the need for the establishment of a Joint Commission which will serve as the major umbrella of all aspects of bilateral relations.

Ambassador Kefas commended the Portuguese government, especially its Navy for attending a yearly Nigerian Naval military exercises and hosting its ships for stop-overs in Portugal.

He also called on the government of President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to consider expanding the defence cooperation to include training of the Nigerian military and other security agencies to tackle the rising security challenges, as well as collaborating with Nigeria in fighting pirates in the Gulf of Guinea.

Ambassador Kefas used his meeting with President de Sousa and highlighted investment opportunities abound in Nigeria and called for the Portuguese investors to consider taking advantage of it by coming en mass.

One of such opportunities Ambassador Kefas unravelled to the Portuguese President is the recent discovery of 206 trillion metric tons of gas in Nigeria.

He noted that Portugal is one of the major importers of Nigeria’s gas. He therefore called on the government of Portugal to double its gas importation from Nigeria.