Nigerian government has promised to explore different incentive packages to encourage Japanese investors to deepen and expand their investments in the country.
The Japanese government during President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Kenya for the TOKYO International Conference on African Development, (TICAD) said it intended to investment at least $10billion in the Nigerian economy within the next three years.
According to an Oped by Presidential Media Aide, Garba Shehu, titled six takeaways from President Buhari’s participation in TICAD, the Japanese investors explored the scope for the “incentive packages the Nigerian government will give them so as to deepen and expand their investments. These included export rebates, access to Foreign Exchange, land, interest rates, transparency in business regulation and favourable regulatory structure”.
Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) as at last year November put trade volume between Japan and Nigeria at $5.28 billion.
The Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at his second meeting with President Buhari made known the intention of Japan to spend “10 Billion Dollars in the next twelve months and overall USD 30billion over a three-year period on areas key to African economies”, targeting infrastructural projects such as roads, energy, ports, hospitals and training institutions.
The money will partly be disbursed through the African Development Bank, ADB.
The Nigerian government delegation on the sidelines of TICAD met with some Japanese enterprises which according to Shehu collectively individually expressed their intention of either coming in newly or expanding their participation in Nigeria’s private sector. The companies with varied interests in power, agriculture, automobile, motorcycles, textiles, financing and the service sector included the Honda Manufacturing (Nigeria) Limited, representing Honda Motor Co. Ltd; Japan Tobacco Inc., Marubeni Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation.
Others included Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Toyota Tsusho (Nigeria) Ltd., an affiliate of Toyota Tsusho Corporation, West African Seasoning Co. Ltd., an affiliate of Ajinomoto Co. Inc., and Japan External Trade Organization, JETRO.
At the end of the conference, Shehu said a statement tagged “Nairobi Declaration” was issued highlighting the launching of “Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security for Africa, IFNA.” This aims to bring African governments together to swiftly implement food and nutrition security policies and programs, he explained adding that there were important resolutions taken on economic diversification and industrialization; promotion of “resilient health system for quality of life” and measures for the promotion social stability and shared prosperity.
For Nigeria in particular, “TICAD 6” milestones include the important meeting between President Buhari and Prime Minister Abe, at which event problems militating against the inflow of Japanese investment into Nigeria were discussed and agreed upon.
Japanese companies had done a lot by way of investment in the past in Nigeria but there has noticeably been a drop in the last decade or two, mostly because of the problem of security, termed in official discussions as “business environment.”
President Buhari used this meeting to effectively assure the investors that the problem was being addressed. Boko Haram terrorism is nearly gone and sabotage in the Niger Delta will soon be ended preferably through dialogue and if not, by force of arms, Shehu said.
The two leaders also discussed the issues of trade and investment, health, peace, and development of the continent as well as issues relating to diplomacy and international relations.
In his speech at the meeting, Buhari announced the constitution of a soon-to-be inaugurated “Presidential Enabling Business Council, PEBEC.”
According to Shehu, he described it as an inter-ministerial council to oversee the efforts of the government to remove various bottlenecks that stifle business and economic activity to give way to the right enabling environment and investment climate in Nigeria. It will be powered by the government but will be private-sector driven.
As its vision, the PEBEC will make Nigeria one of the most attractive business destinations in the world. It will start with the modest effort of moving the country up 20 points in the World Bank ranking in the ease of doing business in the first year, taking it into the top 100 at the end of the four-year mandate of the current administration, the Presidential media aide said.
Elizabeth Archibong
