Nigeria woos more Singaporean investors

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (right) presenting a souvenir to the High Commissioner of Singapore

Nigeria woos more Singaporean investors
Qasim Akinreti, Lagos

The Nigerian government has called on Singaporean investors to take the unique investment advantage of Lagos, Nigeria commercial hub.

The Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, made the call at a meeting with the Singaporean High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Shabbir Hassanbhai, at the Lagos House.

Governor Fashola said visits by Singaporean investors to Nigeria and to Lagos in particular would further nurture the business relationship between Nigeria and Singapore.

According to him, such visits would also enable the entrepreneurs to know and acquaint themselves with the environment in which they expectedly want to invest in. He noted that the biggest impediment was the slow movement of Singaporean entrepreneurs outside their own shores.

In his words, “leaving their shores and coming here will enable them to see the environment in which they expectedly want to invest.”

To accentuate his commitment to the investment drive,  Governor Fashola also accepted  an invitation by the High Commissioner to speak at an Africa-Singapore Business Forum coming up mid next year in Singapore.

 The first edition of the business forum was inaugurated in August 2010 and the second seminar would be coming up on August 30, 2012. 

He suggested that such a forum should be held in rotation between Africa and Singapore to act as a vehicle of interchange of knowledge and nurturing of business relationships.

“If we begin to have this kind of forum in rotation, by hosting it in Africa one period and in Singapore another period, it will facilitate the crossing of channels and direct contact with the people and the place rather than dealing with them on laptops and telephones,” the Governor further suggested.

More collaboration

Fashola also solicited for human capacity building exchange programme in the area of medicine between Lagos and Singapore.

He said that the request was instructive to tap from the advances and frontiers of Medical Science in Singapore with a view to galvanising human capacity development in the state health care sector once the special health facilities were up and running.

Governor Fashola expressed optimism on the completion of air services agreement with Nigeria, which would enable direct flights from Lagos to Singapore to be permanent.

Remarkable gestures

The governor acknowledged the Singaporean hospitality and business efficiency, during his last trip to the country. He said: “Many members of my team have been largely inspired by what you have done in your country and we have been back here since that very first contact trying to surpass ourselves as it were and the Singaporean ethos of work still runs very deep in this government and we will continue to keep that alive”.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Singaporean High Commissioner said he was in Lagos to acquaint himself with the governor and people of Lagos State as well as to see how he could strengthen the already existing relationship between Lagos and his country.

According to him, in the last three years, the Government of Singapore has been very focused in wanting to create a larger economic footprint in Africa. He pointed out that the political relation Singapore has enjoyed particularly with Nigeria has been a great fortune for his country in building the economic footprint in Africa.

Recalling that Singapore has many on-going economic activities in Nigeria at the moment, the High Commissioner cited as the most important, the inauguration of the first cargo flight of the Singaporean Airline to Nigeria on December 5, 2011.

  “For me, this is a very significant event in trying to bridge the connectivity issue we have between Asia and Africa and, I think starting with cargo we hope that as soon as we sign the agreement with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, we will conclude the agreement early next year,” the High Commissioner said pointing out that he had already met with the NCAA Managing Director and the Aviation Minister on the matter.
 
Investment areas

One of the areas Singapore is seeking further investment opportunities and partnership with Nigeria and Lagos, according to the High Commissioner, include Technical Education and Skill Acquisition for youth empowerment which according to him is the key to the success of Singapore adding that a Singaporean company has recently signed an agreement on rice production and processing in Nassarawa State and has invested close to $50 million.
Singaporean companies also intend to invest in the Lekki Free Trade Zone.

Williams