EU, Team Europe Underscore Major Achievements, Assure Bigger Wins In 2026.
By Ferdinand Olise
The European Union and its Team Europe partners have highlighted a string of development, trade and security initiatives delivered in Nigeria in 2025, and announced an ambitious slate of priorities for 2026.
According to them, the bloc remains a reliable and fair partner amid growing geopolitical competition in Africa.
Speaking at an end of the year briefing with Journalists, the EU’s Head of Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Gautier Mignot, reviewed projects and programmes launched, or advanced this year under the EU Global Gateway strategy, and reiterated the bloc’s political and economic ties with Nigeria which is the EU’s largest African trading partner and the top market for Nigerian non‑oil exports.
“We fund long‑term, top‑quality and sustainable projects,” the EU official said. “We don’t just build infrastructure and go; we combine investments with capacity‑building, technical assistance and regulatory support, and we emphasise local value chains and debt sustainability”, he said.
Speaking on major 2025 achievements among the headline initiatives the EU listed for 2025, the Ambassador highlighted the OMI‑EKO waterways project, a €410 million investment, backed by the EU, the European Investment Bank, (EIB), and France, to develop an electric public waterways transport network in Lagos State.
The EU also said that€360 million of the financing package came from EU institutions and France.
On health and de‑risking instruments, the EU said this is a Health Investment Forum held in October which produced €41 million in new projects, and introduced mechanisms designed to de‑risk private investment in health through the EU HDX accelerator.
Also speaking about Culture and partnerships, the Ambassador highlighted the launch of the Nigeria cluster of the Africa‑Europe Partnerships for Culture, part of a €30 million Sub‑Saharan Africa programme with a strong Nigerian component.
According to him, on peace, governance, and trade, the Team Europe and ECOWAS unveiled a package exceeding €100 million targeting peace, security, governance, and measures to leverage opportunities from the African Continental Free Trade Area, (AfCFTA).
A separate Northern Nigeria package of about €300 million was also rolled out for peace‑building and stabilization efforts.
On humanitarian assistance, he said the EU committed nearly €50 million in 2025 to address malnutrition and other humanitarian needs in the Northwest, and Northeast, where large numbers of displaced people and acutely malnourished children remain a priority.
The delegation also pointed to social and youth programming, noting that the Nigeria Jubilee Fellowship, implemented with UNDP, and funded by the EU, will expand to recruit a new cohort of 25,000 graduates for 12‑month professional placements.
He noted that digital Transformation Centres continue to support thousands of tech entrepreneurs, and that Nigeria ranks among the highest recipients in Africa for Erasmus Mundus scholarships.
Meanwhile, on trade and investment this year, he said the EU and Nigeria held their first Trade and Investment Dialogue, and have set up working groups to remove barriers and unlock untapped commercial potential. According to the EU, Nigeria has an estimated $10 billion trade surplus with the bloc, and roughly one‑third of Nigeria’s foreign direct investment stock has come from EU sources when counted collectively.
“We are Nigeria’s first trading partner and first market for non‑oil exports,” the EU official told reporters, while noting that individual member states’ contributions are sometimes measured separately in statistics”, he said.
The briefing took place shortly after the EU‑African Union summit in Luanda (24–25 November), which EU diplomats described as a milestone, reaffirming support for multi-lateralism and the Global Gateway investment strategy.
The Ambassador further stated that, looking ahead to year 2026, the EU will prioritise a ministerial‑level EU‑Nigeria meeting, continued Global Gateway rollouts, and specific programmes including Support for the BRIDGE project with EU+EBRD backing to extend some 90,000 km of optical fibre across Nigeria, An €18 million programme with International IDEA to tackle sexual and gender‑based violence, with a focus on technology‑facilitated SGBV.
This will also include Peace, Security and Defence dialogue early in 2026 that can mobilise additional European Peace Facility funding, also, negotiations on a science, technology and innovation agreement after EU member States approved a negotiation mandate.
Also, steps toward a comprehensive migration and mobility partnership, including potential readmission arrangements, and a Team Europe business forum to spur trade and investment linked to Global Gateway priorities.
The EU delegation therefore underlined that security, humanitarian relief, democratic reforms, and economic opportunity are interlinked priorities, noting that they want Nigeria to thrive as a stable, democratic and prosperous neighbour.
They added that young people remain the prime target of many programmes.
Media and diplomatic attendees at the briefing included representatives from several EU member States active in Nigeria, among them are the Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Italy, Germany, Finland, France and Portugal.
