By Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media and
\nPublicity)<\/p>\n
TOKYO International Conference on African Development, “TICAD 6” just
\nended in Nairobi, Kenya and in attendance were several African Presidents
\nand Prime Ministers including our own Muhammadu Buhari and the co-convener
\nof the conference, Shinzo Abe, the head of the Japanese government.<\/p>\n
The TICAD seeks a win-win partnership between Japan and Africa. A key
\nobjective of the conference is to build up African ownership of its own
\nvision of growth and development.<\/p>\n
In furtherance of this, Japan seeks to differ with the other players on
\nthe continent by placing emphasis on high quality infrastructure that do
\nmore than job creation by transferring technology through the training of
\nyouth and women.<\/p>\n
The conference held every five years from the time it started in 1993
\nuntil the last one in 2003 when it was decided that it should be convened
\nevery three years instead. The one that just finished is significant in
\nthe sense that this was the first time it took place in Africa. They met
\nin Japan all the time in the past.<\/p>\n
Another significant departure is the recognition of the role of the
\nprivate sector in the economic take-off of the continent. In this respect,
\nmore than 100 Chief Executive Officers, CEOs from leading Japanese
\ncompanies accompanied Prime Minister Abe. This is a clear indication that
\nmore and more Japanese companies are eying the African continent. A modest
\nnumber of Nigerian business and state-owned enterprises were equally
\npresent.<\/p>\n
From its start, Prime Minister Abe made known the intention of Japan to
\nspend 10 Billion Dollars in the next twelve months and overall USD 30
\nBillion over a three-year period on areas key to African economies,
\ntargeting infrastructural projects such as roads, energy, ports, hospitals
\nand training institutions. The money will partly be disbursed through the
\nAfrican Development Bank, ADB.<\/p>\n
At the end of the conference, a statement tagged “Nairobi Declaration” was
\nissued. Among its highlights is the launching of “Initiative for Food and
\nNutrition Security for Africa, IFNA.” This aims to bring African
\ngovernments together to swiftly implement food and nutrition security
\npolicies and programs. There were important resolutions taken on economic
\ndiversification and industrialization; promotion of “resilient health
\nsystem for quality of life” and measures for the promotion social
\nstability and shared prosperity.<\/p>\n
For Nigeria in particular, “TICAD 6” milestones include the important
\nmeeting between President Buhari and Prime Minister Abe, at which event
\nproblems militating against the inflow of Japanese investment into Nigeria
\nwere discussed and agreed upon.<\/p>\n
Japanese companies had done a lot by way of investment in the past in
\nNigeria but there has noticeably been a drop in the last decade or two.
\nChiefly to blame is the problem of security, disguised in official
\ndiscussions as “business environment.”<\/p>\n
President Buhari used this meeting effectively in giving assurances that
\nthe problem is being addressed. Boko Haram terrorism is nearly gone and
\nsabotage in the Niger Delta will soon be ended preferably through dialogue
\nand if not, by force of arms.<\/p>\n
Coming into close personal contact for the second time, the two leaders
\ndiscussed the issues of trade and investment, health, peace and
\ndevelopment of the continent. In addition, they discussed issues in
\ndiplomacy and international relations.<\/p>\n
President Buhari’s statement at the Head of States’ round table meeting
\nwith business leaders underscored the serious efforts government is making
\nto improve Nigeria’s notoriously bad business environment.<\/p>\n
At this meeting, he announced the coming into place of a soon-to-be
\ninaugurated “Presidential Enabling Business Council, PEBEC.”<\/p>\n
He described it as an inter-ministerial council to oversee the efforts of
\ngovernment to remove various bottlenecks that stifle business and economic
\nactivity to give way to the right enabling environment and investment
\nclimate in Nigeria. It will be powered by the government but will be
\nprivate-sector driven.<\/p>\n
According to its vision, the PEBEC will make Nigeria one of the most
\nattractive business destinations in the world. It will start with the
\nmodest effort of moving the country up 20 points in the World Bank ranking
\nin the ease of doing business in the first year, taking it into the top
\n100 at the end of the four-year mandate of the current administration.<\/p>\n
A third takeaway is on the sidelines of the TICAD where the Nigerian
\ngovernment delegation met a good number of big Japanese enterprises.
\nCollectively and individually, these businesses expressed their intention
\nof either coming in newly or expanding their participation in Nigeria’s
\nprivate sector. The companies with varied interests in power, agriculture,
\nautomobile, motor cycles, textiles, financing and the service sector
\nincluded the Honda Manufacturing (Nigeria) Limited, representing Honda
\nMotor Co. Ltd; Japan Tobacco Inc., Marubeni Corporation and Mitsubishi
\nCorporation.<\/p>\n
Others included Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Toyota Tsusho (Nigeria) Ltd.,
\nan affiliate of Toyota Tsusho Corporation, West African Seasoning Co.
\nLtd., affiliate of Ajinomoto Co. Inc., and Japan External Trade
\nOrganization, JETRO.<\/p>\n
At these meetings, they explored the scope for the incentive packages the
\nNigerian government will give them so as to deepen and expand their
\ninvestments. These included export rebates, access to Foreign Exchange,
\nland, interest rates, transparency in business regulation and favourable
\nregulatory structure.<\/p>\n
The fourth important takeaway is the formation of a new group KENSA made
\nup of industry leaders on the continent, Kenya representing East Africa,
\nEgypt for North Africa, South Africa for the South and Nigeria, from West
\nAfrica.<\/p>\n
The four countries agreed to consolidate their quadrilateral grouping
\ninitiated at the 19th July UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and
\nDevelopment) meeting and decided to expand business and trade between the
\nfour of them, inject impetus into the CFTA, the African Union-inspired
\nfree trade agreement among African countries and to coordinate their
\npositions on trade and investment inside and outside Africa.<\/p>\n
Fifth, Nigeria and Kenya seized the opportunity of the meeting of their
\nleaders to not only strengthen bilateral relations but to follow up on the
\nachievements of the State Visit to Nairobi by President Buhari earlier
\nthis year.<\/p>\n
From the time of the visit, both countries have seen a growing impetus for
\ntrade and investment between them. Kenya which discovered oil lately is
\npicking lessons from Nigeria’s vast experience in oil and gas. Nigeria is
\nlearning from Kenyan experience in managing animal grazing. There are
\nefforts on both sides to share experience and promote private sector
\nparticipation in trade, cooperatives, micro finance, cotton farming and
\npalm oil processing.<\/p>\n
Sixth, under the auspices of the Bank of Industry and the Nigerian
\nInvestment Promotion Council NIPC, several memoranda of understanding,
\nMOUs were signed between Nigerian parties and their foreign counterparts.
\nFrom many of these, investments and jobs will follow.<\/p>\n
On the President’s delegation were the Ministers of Agriculture, Health,
\nBudget and National Planning, and Industry, Trade and Investment.<\/p>\n
There were also the National Security Adviser, NSA and the
\nDirector-General, National Intelligence Agency, NIA.<\/p>\n
Members of the delegation expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the
\nconference and the side engagements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media and Publicity) TOKYO International Conference on African Development, “TICAD 6” just ended in Nairobi, Kenya and in attendance were several…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n