The Egyptian Minister of Industry and Trade, Tarek Kabil has announced that the Nigerian government has removed its ban on Egyptian furniture after a series of talks and meetings.

The ban ban was imposed on furniture imports, on a list of 25 commodities since 2005, which has negatively affected Egypt’s exports of furniture to Nigeria, the minister said.

Kabil said that Egypt recently raised this issue with the Nigerian side in a number of tracks. The ُEgyptian Commercial Service (ECS) in Geneva conducted a series of consultations with a delegation of Nigeria at the World Trade Organization (WTO), in which ECS expressed the harm experienced by Egyptian companies due to the Nigerian ban on furniture imports, which is a violation of the WTO’s regulations.

Kabil noted that the Nigerian side responded to the Egyptian request and officially confirmed the removal of furniture from the list of prohibited products.

The minister pointed out that removing the ban on furniture imports to Nigeria represents a great opportunity for the Egyptian furniture sector, where the Nigerian market is one of the largest African markets—with a population of 180 million people—as well as being one of the largest economies in Africa.

He called on Egyptian furniture companies to exploit this opportunity and export to the Nigerian market, especially in light of the current trend of the ministry to increase Egyptian exports to African markets, Daily News Egypt reports.