Nigeria witnesses influx of foreign firms, in spite of rising insecurity

By SIAKA MOMOH and OLUSOLA BELLO businessday

Nigeria is increasingly becoming the darling of foreign investors in spite the rising state of insecurity in the country, BusinessDay can confirm.

Trade missions from Pakistan and Japan were guests of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday in Lagos. Mohammed Ahmed, president Metro Group of Companies, led the delegation from Pakistan. Hideharu Sasaki, deputy head of global strategy planning and operations headquarters, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited, Japan led the team from Japan.

These trade missions are in Nigeria to explore the country’s investment potentials. The Pakistani team is coming in with electrical appliances such as fans, TVs, DVDs and motor bikes whilst the Japanese team is interested in investing in oil and gas as well as agriculture.

The Pakistani and Japanese trade missions are coming on the heels of two similar groups that visited the country in the past weeks from the U.S. General Electric Co. (GE) Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt visited Nigeria for the first time last February, pledging to invest in power, health and rail industries, including a locomotive assembly plant.

In February too, a US energy trade mission, led by deputy assistant secretary for African Affairs, William Fitzgerald came in and pledged to invest $1.5 billion on energy business in Nigeria. The mission is a private public partnership with the Corporate Council on Africa. The delegation of US government met with Nigeria’s senior government officials behind closed doors, to discuss challenges for US private sector investment in energy infrastructure projects.

Fitzgerald noted “Nigeria has a tremendous reserve of gas but unfortunately this is not powering energy for the country”. For him, this should not be the case. He also remarked that Nigeria’s potential for alternative energy resource – biomass is not fully exploited.

According to Robert Perry, vice president, Corporation Council on Africa who was a member of the visiting team, “some of the companies that will be coming in at the instance of the trade mission, will be looking for bankable projects, some will partner with existing companies and the mission is interested in power generation and distribution as well”.

In an interview with Bloomberg in February in Zurich, Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said increased terror attacks in the country have failed to deter foreign investment in Nigeria. Said she: “What CEOs were asking was: Do you have a strategy?” Okonjo-Iweala said. Investors “realise that the terrorism is just focused in one part of the country and as long as they feel we have an approach to deal with it, they are more or less comforted,” she said.

Jonathan is willing to hold talks with Boko Haram and is working with state administrations in the north to create jobs and improve education and health, Okonjo-Iweala said.

Said Ahmed from Pakistan: “We will invite lots of Pakistani business interests to visit Nigeria to do business. It is our desire to put our products in the market here, partner with Nigerian businesses and follow up with assembly plants later.”