South African Vice President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Saturday the trade imbalance with Nigeria was skewed in favour of the latter, rejecting earlier claims by his Nigerian counterpart.

"We know the balance of trade is skewed in favour of Nigeria because of the amount of oil South Africa imports from Nigeria," Motlanthe told a gathering of businessmen from the two countries.

"We will like to bring parity in this area by improving the trade flows between our two countries," Motlanthe said.

They were gathered here to mark a decade of bilateral ties under the auspices of the Nigeria/South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC).

On Friday, Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan told the same gathering that trade with South Africa was unfairly titled in favour of the latter.

He said bilateral relations have yielded enormous benefits for South African entrepreneurs with investment in Nigeria while there were little or no opportunities for Nigerians to do real business in South Africa.

"Some Nigerians have questioned the very rational for the BNC if our relations and the benefits they confer are so skewed and if South African authorities are engaged in alleged acts of discrimination against Nigerian visitors, residents and businesses in South Africa," he said.

Official sources in South Africa say more than 100 South African companies operate in Nigeria, a jump from only four before 1999.

The largest of them are in banking, telecommunications, retail and entertainment business.

No figures of Nigerian outfits that have set up shop in South African were readily available.

South Africa, one of the continent's largest oil consumers, gets most of its crude requirements from the Middle East. Nigeria is one of Africa's two top oil producers.

The two countries were scheduled to sign an agreement that is expected to ease immigration problems between their nationals but Motlanthe said the deal would have to be deferred to allow for the completion of an on-going review of South African immigration laws.

"However, in keeping with our commitment to ease immigration between Nigeria and South Africa, our government has, in the interim, made provision for three years multiple visas for holders of diplomatic and official passports from Nigeria," Motlanthe said.

He said the decision "will be implemented with immediate effect while given time for the completion of the review process which is expected to last for a few months."

Prospective Nigerian visitors often complain of difficulty in obtaining South African visas. Motlanthe admitted that the challenges were not limited to visas alone.

Suspected criminal conduct of some Nigerians resident in South Africa has been creating friction between the two countries but Motlanthe said they (Nigerian nationals) were "in no way associated with criminal activities again."

AFP

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