Mr Denys Gauer, Ambassador of France to Nigeria made this known during the French National Day celebration which took place at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja on Friday.

Gauer said that Nigeria was France’s strongest African trading partner and that the government of France had taken measures to help Nigeria diversify and develop its economy.

“Nigeria is already our first trading partner in Africa and we have a good and strong bilateral relationship.

“I continue to urge and encourage many French companies and businessmen to come and invest in Nigeria due to the opportunities available in Nigeria.

Gauer also said  that his country was strongly engaged in the fight against terrorism.

““France helped Mali when terrorists were on the verge of taking control of the country and we then extended our efforts to the whole Sahelian region.

“”Lately, we were instrumental in the creation of the G5 Sahel force, a common force of the five Sahelian countries, which built on the same model as the multilateral joint task force to combat Boko Haram,” he said.