The Mayor of the city of Houston in Texas, United States, Sylvester Turner, has advocated for improved business relationships between Nigeria and the city.

Houston is the most populous city in Texas and in the Southern United States. It is the fourth-most populous city in the United States after New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and the sixth-most populous city in North America.

The Mayor, who is in Nigeria with a 30-man delegation to meet government agencies and the business community, said during a press roundtable in Abuja that Nigeria is a large growing economic market that should interest any business community.

Turner said his team is made up of people from the energy and technology sectors, Houston Medical Centre which he said is the largest in the world, Houston Port Authority – the number one port in the US, as well as people in business.

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While noting that it made good sense for businesses in the US to do business in Nigeria, he however said it was important that the relationship is built on a win-win platform.

He said: “There are some priorities for us. One is a direct flight from Nigeria to Houston and from Houston to Nigeria. When we are talking about business, trade and investment, we need to make it as easy as possible to make people go from one place to the other.

“There are more Nigerians in Houston than in New York, LA, Chicago, and Atlanta. So, we need a Councillor office in the city of Houston. We are hoping to encourage the Nigerian government to set up a councillor office. When I came into office some eight years ago, that was one of the big requests from the Nigerian community in the city of Houston, so we want to advance that.

“And third is to simply enhance the trade and investment relationships between the two of us. Right now, Nigeria is Houston’s largest African trading partner valued at about $1.6 billion as of 2022. We feel there is room for exponential growth and we want to push that.”

He said areas being looked at included medical tourism, agriculture, technology, manufacturing and logistics.

The mayor expressed optimism about the policies of the new government in Nigeria, saying people were encouraged by the economic steps being taken by the government so far.