The first day of the government delegation trip to the African continent marked the arrival of Ministers Bettel and Fayot in Niamey.
After a celebratory welcoming at the airport, the 38-people delegation travelled straight to an artisanal market, which was funded by the Luxembourgish development aid at the beginning of the 1990s.
PM Bettel expressed his admiration for local craftspeople and even bought a chair from a carpenter. Nevertheless, Ali Rabiou, secretary general of the market, drew attention to the fact that one famous client will not help save the market, which has severely suffered under the Covid pandemic.
According to Minister Fayot, there are also other factors contributing to the struggles of the market: “It was believed that enough tourists would find their way to the market and purchase goods, but that did not happen. I think that establishing a way of exporting the goods would help, a project that I will take home from this trip.”
Luxembourg will continue providing development aid to Niger until 2026, with €145 million planned for the remainder of the period. No other country benefits more from Luxembourg’s development and cooperation funds.
President Mohamed Bazouma invited PM Bettel and personally thanked him for his support. The state leader even joked that despite warning of the elevated temperatures, Luxembourg’s PM decided to visit Niger in June, which is a true testimony of his honest commitment.
PM Bettel thus braved temperatures of 43°C in order to underline that Niger deserves Luxembourg’s support: “I was here 20 years ago as a young MP. Back then, we tried to help strengthen women’s rights and the country has since implemented many projects. Mohamed Bazoum also spoke to me about Marie-Josée Jacobs, who already came here 30 years ago, another indicator for our longstanding cooperation.”
Seven NGOs are active in Niger, and the Luxembourgish delegation further met with Aliou Oumarou, spokesperson of Niger’s scouts. He expressed gratitude for the financial aid coming from the Grand Duchy: “With the help of Luxembourgish scouts, we make dreams come true. We are currently working on a project against extremism and radicalisation, which costs $900,000. Young people and women participate in this project.”
Luxembourg’s development aid is thus designed to not only strengthen Niger’s defence, but also to create preventive measures. One of the ongoing issues is that young men tend to join Islamist groups for a lack of perspective, a problem which also affects Niger’s neighbouring countries.
