SIX TAKEAWAYS FROM PRESIDENT BUHARI'S PARTICIPATION IN “TICAD 6” NAIROBI, KENYA.
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 African Presidents
and Prime Ministers including our own Muhammadu Buhari and the co-convener
of the conference, Shinzo Abe, the head of the Japanese government.
The TICAD seeks a win-win partnership between Japan and Africa. A key
objective of the conference is to build up African ownership of its own
vision of growth and development.
In furtherance of this, Japan seeks to differ with the other players on
the continent by placing emphasis on high quality infrastructure that do
more than job creation by transferring technology through the training of
youth and women.
The conference held every five years from the time it started in 1993
until the last one in 2003 when it was decided that it should be convened
every three years instead. The one that just finished is significant in
the sense that this was the first time it took place in Africa. They met
in Japan all the time in the past.
Another significant departure is the recognition of the role of the
private sector in the economic take-off of the continent. In this respect,
more than 100 Chief Executive Officers, CEOs from leading Japanese
companies accompanied Prime Minister Abe. This is a clear indication that
more and more Japanese companies are eying the African continent. A modest
number of Nigerian business and state-owned enterprises were equally
present.
From its start, Prime Minister Abe made known the intention of Japan to
spend 10 Billion Dollars in the next twelve months and overall USD 30
Billion 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.
At the end of the conference, a statement tagged “Nairobi Declaration” was
issued. Among its highlights is 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. 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.
Chiefly to blame is the problem of security, disguised in official
discussions as “business environment.”
President Buhari used this meeting effectively in giving assurances that
the problem is 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.
Coming into close personal contact for the second time, the two leaders
discussed the issues of trade and investment, health, peace and
development of the continent. In addition, they discussed issues in
diplomacy and international relations.
President Buhari’s statement at the Head of States’ round table meeting
with business leaders underscored the serious efforts government is making
to improve Nigeria’s notoriously bad business environment.
At this meeting, he announced the coming into place of a soon-to-be
inaugurated “Presidential Enabling Business Council, PEBEC.”
He described it as an inter-ministerial council to oversee the efforts of
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.
According to 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.
A third takeaway is on the sidelines of the TICAD where the Nigerian
government delegation met a good number of big Japanese enterprises.
Collectively and individually, these businesses 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, motor cycles, 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., affiliate of Ajinomoto Co. Inc., and Japan External Trade
Organization, JETRO.
At these meetings, they 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.
The fourth important takeaway is the formation of a new group KENSA made
up of industry leaders on the continent, Kenya representing East Africa,
Egypt for North Africa, South Africa for the South and Nigeria, from West
Africa.
The four countries agreed to consolidate their quadrilateral grouping
initiated at the 19th July UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development) meeting and decided to expand business and trade between the
four of them, inject impetus into the CFTA, the African Union-inspired
free trade agreement among African countries and to coordinate their
positions on trade and investment inside and outside Africa.
Fifth, Nigeria and Kenya seized the opportunity of the meeting of their
leaders to not only strengthen bilateral relations but to follow up on the
achievements of the State Visit to Nairobi by President Buhari earlier
this year.
From the time of the visit, both countries have seen a growing impetus for
trade and investment between them. Kenya which discovered oil lately is
picking lessons from Nigeria’s vast experience in oil and gas. Nigeria is
learning from Kenyan experience in managing animal grazing. There are
efforts on both sides to share experience and promote private sector
participation in trade, cooperatives, micro finance, cotton farming and
palm oil processing.
Sixth, under the auspices of the Bank of Industry and the Nigerian
Investment Promotion Council NIPC, several memoranda of understanding,
MOUs were signed between Nigerian parties and their foreign counterparts.
From many of these, investments and jobs will follow.
On the President’s delegation were the Ministers of Agriculture, Health,
Budget and National Planning, and Industry, Trade and Investment.
There were also the National Security Adviser, NSA and the
Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, NIA.
Members of the delegation expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the
conference and the side engagements.
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