By Nkiruka Nnorom

Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, has urged the continent to embrace hands-on partnerships with countries like South Korea that deliver concrete development outcomes rather than relying on foreign aid and handouts.

Osaghae spoke at a joint seminar organised by the NIIA and the Korea Embassy in Lagos with the theme: “Engaging Africa in the Face of Dwindling Foreign Aid and Assistance.”

He said the sharp decline in foreign aid to Africa, occasioned by funding cuts by the United States and other Western donors, had exposed the continent’s vulnerability and the need to prioritise trade, investment and practical partnerships.

According to him, the Trump era has exposed the extent of America’s influence on multilateral institutions,humanitarian support and development financing.

He noted that U.S. funding cuts to the United Nations, World Health Organisation, WHO, climate advocacy initiatives and USAID had forced austerity measures on several UN agencies and stalled social and health programmes across Africa.

He said: “When America says it has a problem with the U.N., the U.N. is in trouble. I know of at least 10 U.N. agencies that have had to adopt austerity measures, including turning off air conditioners for extended periods, simply because America has cut back on aid.

“The net result of all this is that aid to Africa and the developing world has declined massively.”
He praised South Korea’s hands-on aid that could result in concrete deliverables, citing its village modernisation model and ICT work in Rwanda as alternatives to Western aids.

“The good thing about South Korea, especially, is that it has already had development interventions in many parts of Africa. For instance, it has exported its village model, the modernization of the village, and that’s going on everywhere. It’s a concrete deliverable; it’s something that we can see.

“So if the village model is exported, and we take trade investment, not aid, and we can partner with Korea, that would be very good,” Osaghae said, adding that Africa wants “African solutions to African problems.”
Korean Charge d’Affaires to Nigeria, Tak Namgung, said that effective partnership must move beyond aid to focus on system, capacity and shared responsibility where economic growth and human rights advance together.

He cited the Korea International Cooperation Agency, KOICA, which has supported Nigeria’s e-government platforms, including a $13 million project that concludes this year. “These platforms are not just technical decisions,” Namgung explained. “They allow citizens to access services more easily, and that creates channels for accountability.”

On maritime security, the envoy described the Gulf of Guinea as “a critical maritime region, not only for this region, but also for global trade and also food trade.” He disclosed that Korea contributed $3 million in May 2025 to a project with the International Maritime Organization and donated a former Petrobras vessel now operating as a naval ship with the Nigerian Navy.

Dr. Adesuwa Erediauwa, Research Fellow at NIIA, called for leveraging South Korea’s marine technology and digital capabilities to drive a Korea-Nigeria alliance that moves from aid to trade.

“We would like that we leverage Korean marine technology for our coastal trade facilitation,” she said, noting that over 80 percent of AfCFTA’s international trade was seaborne yet Africa owns less than 1.2 percent of the global shipping fleets.

With South Korea controlling over 35 percent of high-value global vessel markets, she recommended tapping that expertise to boost Nigeria’s coastal trade and Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) logistics.

She proposed a joint Korea-Nigeria SAME finance facility to reduce investment volatility and boost South Korea’s export-oriented investment in Africa.

She stressed that engagement with the youths was the “primary transmission mechanism through which the transition from aid to alliance can become real, scalable, and sustainable,” and proposed an annual Africa-Korea or Nigeria-Korea youth economic forum to institutionalize participation.